ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES 



HEARINGS 



BEFORE THE 



COMMITTEE ON CONSERVATION OF NATIONAL 
RESOURCES, UNITED STATES SENATE. 

ON THE BILL ^ ? 4l 

S. 9959 

TO AMEND AN ACT ENTITLED ''AN ACT TO PROTECT 
THE SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA, AND FOR OTHER 
PURPOSES," APPROVED APRIL 21, 1910 



No. 1 



WASHINGTON 






COMMITTEE ON CONSERVATION OF NATIONAL RESOURCES. 

UNITED STATES SENATE. 



JOSEPH M. DIXON, 
CLARENCE D. CLARK, ofWyoming. 
ALBERT J. BEVERIDGE, of "Indiana. 
WILLIAM P. DILLINGHAM, of Vermont. 
WELDON B.PIEYBURN, of Idaho. 
CHARLES DICK, of Ohio. 
FRANK O. BRIGGS, of New Jersey. 
SIMON GUGGENHEIM, of Colorado. 



of Montana (chairman). 

WESLEY L. JONES, of Washington. 
FRANCIS G. NEWLANDS, of Nevada. 
LEE S. OVERMAN, of North Carolina. 
JOHN H. BANKHEAD. of Alaliama. 
ELLISON D. SMITH, of South Carolina. 
CLARENCE WAYLAND WATSON, of West 

^'irginia. 
Miles Ta'V'loe, Clerk. 









ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. 



Saturday, February 4, 1911. 
n. 

Present, Senators Dixon (chairman), Clark of Wyoming, Dilling- 
ham, Ileyburn, Jones, Smith of South Carolina, and Watson, 

Hon. Charles Nagel, Secretary of Commerce and Labor, appeared. 

OPENING STATEMENT BY THE CHAIRMAN. 

The Chairman (Senator Dixon). Gentlemen, we do not have a 
quorum of the committee present. It is ahnost impossible at this 
stage of the session to get a full meeting of a large committee, unless 
something of tremendous importance comes up, and on Saturda}^ 
morning it is especially hard. I have called the committee together 
at the earnest solicitation of some gentlemen for a hearing on the 
bill of Senator Xelson, introduced last January, to declare a five-j^ear 
absolute closed season. I think there is some difference of opinion 
as to what the bill passed a year ago really meant ; whether it really 
was intended to provide an absolute closed season or not, or whether 
discretion was to be given to the department to go ahead with the 
killing. Prof. Elliott and Dr. Hornada}^ and Air. Seymour are the 
gentlemen who have communicated with me specially regarding this. 

As I understand it, you gentlemen have some testimony regarding 
conditions on the islands, the killing during the last season, and the 
fact, as I understand it, that a large part of the killing was of female 
seals, and that the bulls had been killed down to a condition where the 
old ones are almost impotent. As I recall it, this is the general line 
of the charges. Whom do you wish to have testify, Mr. Seymour? 
You are the attorney for the Camp Fire Club. 

STATEMENT OF MR. JULIUS H. SEYMOUR, OF NEW YORK, REP- 
RESENTING THE CAMP FIRE CLUB OF AMERICA. 

Mr. Seymour. Mr. Chaii'inan and gentlemen, I might say in open- 
ing that our purpose is to discuss the merits of this Senate bill No. 
9959, as to whether or not now, under the present conditions, no 
matter what has gone by in the ])ast, there should be a closed season. 
I am sorry that the Secretary of Commerce and Labor did not stay, 
as he was in the room; but whatever we do or say, it will be just the 
same as if he were here, and he will find that this will be confined 
simply to a logical and reasonable discussion of this question. 
Senator Heyburn. Are you in favor of a closed season 'i 
Mr. Seymour. We are decidedly in favor of a closed season, and 
as to that I would like to call on Dr. Hornaday, who is as well versed 



4 ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. 

ill this sul)ject, probably, as anybody living. He will say a few 
words in reference to why we believe there should be a closed season. 
The Chairman. We \\ill be glad to hear from Dr. Ilornaday. 

STATEMENT OF DR. WILLIAM T. HORNADAY, OF NEW YORK 
CITY, CHAIRMAN COMMITTEE ON GAME-PROTECTION LEGIS- 
LATION OF THE CAMP FIRE CLUB OF AMERICA. 

Dr. IIoRNADAY. Air. Chairman, and gtmtlemen of the committee, 
I wall try to be very brief, because I realize the many necessities of the 
situation. 

First let me call your attention to the fact that in our original 
request to Congress for action in this matter our first specification was 
for a cessation of the laws existing; second, a 10-year closed season; 
third, the negotiation of treaties for the suppression of pelagic sealing. 
We reached these conclusions, gentlemen, after a very long and 
careful deliberation and examination of all the facts and all the 
records bearing on the case. These decisions were not reached 
hastily. We considered the matter from a financial standpoint, from 
a political standpoint, and from a zoological standpoint. 

I want to speak for a moment on the zoological aspects of this case. 
My colleagues will take care of the political side — that is, the treaty 
side. I will only add for my part that on the 22d of last March we 
addressed to Secretary Knox a specific written rec|uest, asking him, 
begging him, to renew the propositions contained in what is familiarly 
known as the Hay-Durand treat}^, and we are credibly informed that 
that is the treaty that is now under consideration and has actually 
been signed by somebody. That is one feature of what we thought 
was very necessary, and which we still think necessary, but that is 
only one item of what we regard as a very necessary program. You 
gentlemen know quite as well as I do that this situation presents some 
extraordinarily difficult aspects. There never has been a conserva- 
tion question before this Government which has been so complicated, 
so hedged in with difficulties, so fertile of rebuffs and disputes as this. 
The whole resources of the United States Government during the 12 
years past have not been able to make one iota of progress until your 
bill was finally passed by Congress. 

Now, we will assume, if you please, that this treaty is about to be 
ratified and that it will be ratified. We are j)raying that it will be 
ratified. It is a very important and necessaiy step, but, even if it 
is, there are two other nations to be considered, Japan and Russia, 
and it is impossible for anybody to say in advance what tliey will do. 
It is impossible for anybody to say whether they are willing to 
negotiate treaties wdiile we go on killing on those islands. We can 
not tell what will happen. Let us take no chances on this matter 
for the sake of the few paltry dollars that can from year to j^ear be 
obtained from this killing. The future stake is too great. 

Let us now take up the zoological aspect of the case, which I had 
particuhirly in mind. You see on these is ands the remnant of a 
mighty marine life. It is merely a remnant in comparison to the 
millions existing years ago, and it is no exaggeration to call it that. 
We know the ])rocess that has been going on The killing of seals 
on land and the kil'ing of seals at sea by the pelagic sealers has gone 
on until the fur-seal life has been drained to the very dregs. I don't 
think there is any room for argument on that point. 



ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. 5 

The Chairman. What is your estimate, Dr. H rnaday, of the 
number of seals left ? 

Dr. IIornaday. I can only make a o;iiess at it by the number 
available for killinf^ every year, and I think that affords an excellent 
index of the conchtion of that herd. I know that the Bureau of 
Fisheries estimates or counts that there are 50,000 breeding females 
there. Now, if there are 50,000 breeding females, why is it there are 
only 14,000 seals killed each year. It is my opinion that there are 
about 30,000 seals left there; 30,000 breeding seals and a small 
margin of male life. This opinion is based on the actual killing that 
takes place and the absolute knowledge that of that killing a great 
deal consists of seal life that formerly was not touched at all. The 
limit of size has steadily been lowered; the seals killed are getting 
shorter and shorter every year. That means only one thing. I 
think if there are 50,000 breeding seals it would be possible to get 
30,000 a year, instead of only 14,000. 

Senator Heyburn. You refer to those killed on land; you do not 
take into account those killed in the water. 

Dr. HoRNADAY. No; I am not speaking of that at present. Here 
is our opportunit}^ to recuperate a desolated species. I want to read 
three or four sentences from an article in the last number of the 
Popular Science Monthly by a gentleman who is no less a man than 
the chairman of the advisory board of the fur-seal service. President 
David Starr Jordan, of Stanford University. I think that both sides 
can agree that we can afford to bring forward his testimony in regard 
to this question. These views are important, gentlemen, in making 
a decision on this broad case and it impinges directly on this bill. 

The last 30 years have seen the period of greatest activity in the study of biology. 
Among other matters, we have seen the rise of definite knowledge of the process of 
heredity and its application to the formation and improvement of races of men and 
animals. From our 

******* 

With men, as with animals, "Like the seed is the harvest." In every vicissitude 
of race of men or of breed of animals, it is always those who are left who determine 
what the future shall be. 

All progress in whatever direction is conditioned on selective breeding. There is 
no permanent advance not dependent on advance in the type of parenthood. There 
is no decline except that arising from breeding from the second-best instead of the 
best. 

******* 

We have now to consider only a single factor. In science, this factor is known as 
"reversal of selection." "Send forth the best ye breed!" 

******* 

The decline of a people can have but one cause, the decline in the type from which 
it draws its sires. A herd of cattle can degenerate in no other way than this, and a 
race of men is under the same laws. 

******* 

The sm-vival of the fittest in the struggle for existence is the primal moving cause of 
race progress and of race changes. In the red stress of human history, this natural 
process of selection is sometimes reversed . A reversal of selection is the beginning of 
degradation. It is degradation itself. 

******* 

In times of peace there is no slaughter of the strong, no sacrifice of the courageous. 
In the peaceful struggle for existence there is a premium placed on these virtues. 
The virile and the brave svirvive. The idle, weak, and dissipated go to the wall. 

******* 

And all laws of probabilities and of averages are subject to a still higher law, the 
primal law of biology, which no cross-current of life can overrule or modify. Like 
the seed is the harvest. 



b ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. 

Here is the situation to-day. Can^'ou or can any man take a desolated 
species that lias got down into the slough of despond and go on killing 
its males, 95 per cent of them every year, and expect that the fittest 
males will survive to do the breeding? I say it can not be done. 
The moment man interferes with a Avild species, deterioration begins. 
The conditions between wild species and domestic species are highly 
different. They have always been so and they always will be. There 
is not a case on record where man has successfully stepped in to regu- 
late the breeding of a wild sj)ecies with successful results. 

Let us take a few cases in point. Take the antelope in the nine 
Western States which still contain prong-horned antelope. A little 
while ago that species had got down to a very low point. The men 
of the West came to see that unless something was done to regulate 
it the species was doomed to disappear forever. Did they forbid the 
killing of all but 5 per cent of the male antelopes ? No, tliey did not. 
They knew it would not do to interfere with those herds in that way. 
They passed laws that not a single antelope should be killed, and to- 
day in those nine States which still contain antelope the law is univer- 
sally for a long closed season. In most of the States it is five years. 
You can not go out there and kill a male antelope without being fined 
in most of the ^States $500. The males can be picked out by hunters. 
The females have no horns, and if they felt it was wise to kill off 95 
per cent of the males, it would be easy enough to pick them out and do 
it. That is how the States regard it, and the same laws apply to-day 
on the Pribilof Islands. 

Take the case of the United States Government. Let us see how 
the Government regards this (luestion. The caribou on the Alaskan 
Peninsula were threatened with extinction — Grant's caribou. Did 
the Government pass a regulation that only males should be killed ? 
No, indeed; they said all killing must stop on the Alaskan Peninsula. 
They declared a closed season for 10 years, and the same was done in 
regard to the caribou on the Kanai Peninsula. That is the way the 
Government regards it. 

Take the case of the elk in the Yellowstone Park. There are 
thousands of elk in the Yellowstone Park and many of them males. 
Does the Government permit males to be killed there for the good 
of the herd? No, indeed; not a single male may be killed on Gov- 
ernment territory. Outside it is different. The big males are culled 
oft' by the hunters during the hunting season; they are culled out 
each year. The fittest to survive are the ones first killed. What is 
the result ? 

Senator Heybuen. Didn't you state in your former hearing before 
us that the seals paired off and mated ? 

Dr. HoRNADAY. The seal is a highly polygamous animal. 

Senator Heyburn. Some one made that statement. 

Dr. HoRNADAV. Yes, I remember it; but each male has his own 
harem. 

In the case of the elk in the Yellowstone Park the males that are 
fittest to survive are killed by the hunters, and if you visit these 
herds to-day you can see the result in the deterioration of the stock. 
It is a difficult matter for a hunter to go out there now and find a 
male with a j^air of antlers such as they found 25 years ago. The 
antlers are steatlily growing smaller. 



ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. 7 

Take the red deer of Europe, for illustration. Two hundred years 
ago the red deer of Germany and Hungary were magnificent animals. 
They had antlers verging close onto the size of our best elk to-day. 
Go into the old castles of Germany and Hungary where the owners 
had a taste for hunting and saving antlers and you will find scores 
of pairs of antlers such as can not be found to-day anywhere in the 
world on the living animal. The animal, physically, has steadily 
gone down. Why'^ Because the best males have been picked out 
and killed. That is the reason — nothing else in the world. I tell 
you, gentlemen, interfere with the laws of nature by killing the 
males and down goes the physical character of the species. 

The same is true of the moose to-day in Maine. 

Take the case of the wood duck in the State of New York, to come 
closer home. The wood duck had reached a very low point. Sports- 
men very grudgingly conceded that fact, and very grudgingly agreed 
to a law for its preservation. Did they except 95 per cent of the 
males ? By no means. They put on an absolute closed-season law 
in the State of New York, and yet the males are as easily distinguished 
from females as male deer are from female deer. 

Coming down to fur seals, take the Russian example. We must 
treat things from history. We, certainly, as an enlightened people, 
do not need to experience everything ourselves before we act. The 
Russians were very greedy in the matter of killing seals. They were 
asked, long before they did it, to inaugurate a closed season. They 
refused, admitting it would be a good thing, but refused, just by 
main strength as it were. You know what happened. The seals 
went down to such a point that they were obliged to put on a closed 
season for 10 years. It will be said in answer to that that the Rus- 
sians killed both females and males. So they did. 

Mr. Elliott. You are mistaken. Dr. Hornaday ; the Russians never 
drove from the breeding grounds — never, since 1802 — they respected 
those breeding grounds better even than we have done. 

Dr. Hornaday. I am glad to hear that; I did not so understand it. 

Now, gentlemen, this is the conclusion of my point. We claim as 
a zoological proposition that the way to bring up the seals of the 
Pribilof Islands to a point where the industry of seal killing will 
amount to something, will be worthy of serious consideration, will 
bring into our Treasury something worth having, is to give the herds 
an absolute rest for iive years. If you, as business men, owned those 
seals, I will guarantee that that is what you would do. That is what 
I certainly would do. I would not any more go on with killing 95 
per cent of those males than I would dig up seed potatoes in my fields 
and eat them because I thought it was a long time until the harvest. 
That is the only way to bring up a species. 

The law of nature which requires that man shall keep his hands olf 
a decimated species is perfectly plain. There is no getting around it; 
it is a fixed fact, and I have been profoundly surprised that certain 
distinguished men, otherwise good zoologists, have taken the ground 
and stated again and again that 95 per cent of the male seals on these 
islands need to be killed for the good of the herd. They do not. 
The reason why they do not need to be killed is this: Let those seals 
alone and the strongest and the ablest ]>idls will do the breeding. 
That is all there is to it. If you kill 95 per cent of the males, you are 
pretty certain to kill 95 per cent of the best bulls. You can not tell 



8 ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES, 

when you kill o-year-olds how those annuals are going to develop 
when G years old. It is impossible, and the result is that just so sure 
as we go on killing 95 per cent of these male seals to-day, we will 
have left to do the breeding a lot of second and third rate males. 

If you let nature alone the biggest and strongest bulls will drive 
the weaker ones to one side, and they will do the breeding, and that 
is what brings up a species and keeps it up to the liighest stantlard. 
It seems to me that that is such a plain business proposition that 
there is no possible gainsaying it. No one needs to be a scientific 
man to judge of that. It is just as plain as print, and, moreover, we 
don't know what is going to happen to these seals. Now is the time 
to stop killing for five years, and Canada has expressed her willing- 
ness to abide by that decision if we do it. That will give us time to 
ascertain what can be done with Japan and with Russia. 

Senator Heyburn. You refer to the killing in the water ? 

Dr. HoRNADAY. I refer to the killing on land. 

Senator Heyburn. We can control the killing on land ourselves. 

Dr. Horn AD AY. That is what I am asking you to do. I am speak- 
ing wholl}' of killing on land, because we all agree that killing in the 
water means the killing of a great many females and must be stopped 
or the whole industry will be ruined and the fur seal lost. We all 
agree upon that, and when this committee reported favorably on the 
bill passed last year we thought the matter was settled and that we 
were to have a closed season. I am sure some of the members of 
this committee thought so too. 

Senator Heyburn. I thought so. 

The Chairman. I thought so, too, and I believe man}'- of the 
Senators thought so. 

Senator Heyburn. I never believed in permitting the killing upon 
land at all. 

Dr. HoRNADAY. And it came to us of the Camp Fire Club as a 
mighty shock when we learned on the 1st of last May that killing was 
to go on. 

The Chairman. I think the universal feeling was that it was going 
to be a closed season. 

Senator Clark of Wyoming. I don't think anybody thought 
otherwise. 

Dr. HoRNADAY. The whole people of the United States thought 
that was settled and that there was to be no further killing. The 
President signed that bill on the 21st of April, and on the 1st of May 
the Commissioner of Fisheries, Mr. Bowers, announced, and it was 
printed in the vSeattle Post-Intelligencer, that they were going on with 
the killing again this season, but he qualified it by sajang: "There 
will be no wholesale killing, but we think they should be killed for 
the good of the herd." 

And what did they do ? They killed 12,920 seals, in spite of our 
protest. We protested to the Secretary of Commerce and Labor in 
the strongest terms, that he might be given notice in time of what he 
was doing. What was the result ? He paid not the slightest atten- 
tion to it so far as refraining from his intended policy was concerned. 

The Chairman. Now I want to suggst to the committee, inasmuch 
as the department officials are here, including Mr. Lembkej^, who was 
in charge of the Pribilof killing last year, that we hear from him. 



ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. i) 

STATEMENT OF MR. WALTER I. LEMBKEY, AGENT IN CHARGE 
OF SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA, IN THE DEPARTMENT OF 
COMMERCE AND LABOR. 

The Chairman. Mr. Lembkey, what is your official status and 
title ? 

Mr. Lembkey. My official title, Mr. Chairman, is agent in charge 
of seal fisheries of Alaska, in the Department of Commerce and Labor. 

The Chairman. You were in charge of the Pribilof Islands and 
the killing there during the past season ? 

Mr. Lembkey. Yes, sir; I have general supervision over that work. 

The Chairman. And you had been there prior to that time? 

Mr. Lembkey. I have been there for 12 years now. 

The Chairman. Now, Mr. Lembkey, go ahead and tell the com- 
mittee what the Department of Commerce and Labor did during the 
past year in the matter of killing seals; the number you killed, and 
the general conditions. Just tell the whole story and why. 

Senator Heyburn. And the disposition made of the seals. 

The Chairman. Yes, and the disposition made of the seals. 

Mr. Lembkey. As a matter of fact, the killing on the islands was 
carried on during last summer in the same manner, practically, as 
it had been carried on during the period of the lessee of the seahng 
right. That is to say, before any killing was allowed in the spring 
a certain number of the finest of the young males were reserved for 
breeding purposes, and were marked so as to be readily discernible 
during the season. 

Senator Heyburn. How do you mark them ? 

Mr. Lembkey. We mark them by clipping the fur off the heads 
with sheep shears. 

Senator Clark of Wyoming. How long does that last ? 

Mr. Lembkey. That lasts during the entire season. 

Q. You can not recognize that seal the next season? — A. You can 
not recognize the seal the next season, but after this so-called breed 
reserve has been secured killing for skins takes place. No skins were 
to be killed under 5 pounds in weight; no seals were to be killed that 
had skins weighing over S| pounds. All between those weights, with 
the exception of those marked for the breed reserve, were killed. 
Drives were made over the killing grounds as often as in the judg- 
ment of the native foreman in charge of the seal gang the drive would 
be justified. There they were carefully gone over; this reserve for 
breeding was carefully guarded from slaughter. 

The Chairman. What percentage did you reserve from killing of 
the males ? 

Mr. Lembkey. It is almost impossible to state what percentage of 
the whole number we did reserve, because we do not know, for 
instance, with any degree of accuracy how many S-j'ear-olds are in 
existence. We can not drive these animals into a corral and count 
them over and from this take a certain percentage. As a matter of 
fact, some of these animals are always in the water or they haul out 
in inaccessible places where tliej^ can not be counted. 

Q. Approximately what percentage? — A. Approximately we ob- 
served, I should say, 20 per cent of the 3-year-olds in existence; from 
15 to 20 per cent. Not all the killable seals haul out during the sum- 
mer at any one time so they can be driven. That you may under- 
stand what I mean by "haul," I will say that they come on land, so 



10 ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. 

that the}' may gather into drives aiul ])e brought to the village; but 
of those that did haul out during the summer in 1909, 66 per cent 
were killed and 33 per cent were released. 

Senator Clark, of Wyoming. Those were all yearlings ? 

Mr. Lembkey. All the killable seals of those driven. 

Q. But they were all yearlings? — A. They were all yearlings; no 
full-grown bulls. Those driven were immature seals. 

The Chaikman. You mean male seals ? 

Mr. Lembkey. I mean male seals: yes, sir; and of those driven 
66 per cent were killed for skins and 33 per cent, or one-third, were 
released. 

Q. That was under the old contract system ? — A. Yes, sir. Now 
under this new system we kill about 68 instead of 66 per cent, 
the condition being that in our opinion the seals did not for some 
climatic reason haul out on land in the same proportions as they did 
during the preceding year. Now we have a large number of imma- 
ture young males past the age of clubbing growing up to supplant 
those old bulls now on the rookeries, which of course are dying off. 
We are releasing the number each year to keep up that breeding 
reserve, and we do feel that the conditions are demonstrated which 
will indefinitely perpetuate this seal species. 

The Chairman. How many did you kill last vear? 

Mr. Lembkey. We killed 12,920! 

Q. How many had the old fur company killed the vear before ? — 
A. They killed 14,000 and something. 

Q. What was the youngest seal you killed; what age? — A. Two 
years old. 

Q. The statement has been made that it is hardly possible to dis- 
tinguish the male and the female at that age ? — -A. At 2 years old ? 

Q. Yes ; what is your opinion ? — A. There is considerable difficulty 
in distinguishing the young males and females. There is considerable 
difficulty in distinguishing the male and the female yearling. They 
are both of the same size and general formation. It is almost impos- 
sible for anybody not an expert to pick them out and distinguish 
between them, and it is rather difficult, even for an expert ; but of the 
2-year-olds the females are not on the hauling grounds; the}^ are on 
the breeding rookeries for their initial impregnation. The 2-year-old 
males, on the other hand, are on the hauling out grounds. 

Q. In the killing last year, did you kill any female seals i — A. Not 
to my knowledge, sir. I had general super%asion, as I- say, over the 
work on both islands, but, being back and forth from day to day, I 
was not present at every killing and could not, of course, be; but I 
cai-efully interrogated this morning Mr. Judge, who had charge of the 
kiUing on St. Paul, and Maj. Clark, who had charge on St. George, as 
to whether any female seals had been killed during the past season, to 
tlieir knowledge, and they stated that none had been killed. 

Senator Clark of Wyoming. May I ask a question? 

The Chairman. Certainly. I want everybody to ask such c{ues- 
tions as they desire, which will throw liglit on this subject. 

Senator Clark of Wyoming. Were you present at the hearing on 
this bill last year — the bill that was passed by Congress ? 

Mr. Lembkey. Yes, sir; I was present at one hearing. 

Senator Clark of Wyoming. I understantl that that bill was 
passed at the solicitation of the Department of Commerce and Labor 



ALASKAN SEAL FISHEEIES. 11 

on the theory that if rehef was not granted immediately it would be 
necessary to reenter into the contract with the company which had the 
privilege of killing at that time, and the complaint made, or I have 
understood that to be one of the reasons why that company should 
not be given the contract again, was because their method of opera- 
tion was such that the herds were rapidly becoming extinct, and it 
was necessary to make some gencril change, which I understood at 
that time was to be a closed season. Now, it seems from your state- 
ment, notwithstanding the fact that the bill was passed, for the sole 
purpose of changing that method of handling these seals, they have 
been handled in exactly the same way they were before. 

Mr. Lembkey. I of course do not know what communication the 
honorable Secretary of Commerce and Labor had with the committee. 
I do know this, however, that the question of the renewal of the lease 
was a legal point more than anything else; that the law was such that 
if it were not amended within a certain time — that is to say, before the 
1st of April, 1910 — it would be mandatory upon the Secretary of Com- 
merce and Labor to lenew that lease for a further period of 20 years. 

Senator Clark of Wyoming. Perhaps it would be proper for me to 
ask this question, which occurs to me at this time: So far as the seal 
herd itself is concerned we have not made a bit of advance by the bill 
which we took up at the earnest solicitation of the Secretary of Com- 
merce and Labor last year and passed ; things have been going on in 
the same way ? 

The Chairman. I want to ask Mr. Lembkey if there was danger of 
exterminating the seal herd under the contract system, why does not 
the same condition obtain when the Government does the killing ? 

Mr. Lembkey. I do not believe, Mr. Chairman, that any statement 
has ever been made by any person in the Department of Commerce 
and Labor or in the Government that the methods practiced on land 
have resulted in the diminution of a single life from the herd. 

Q. Does it result in deterioration of the species from the standpoint 
of Dr. Hornaday — that the indiscriminate killing of the male, or the 
killing of the strong, virile male, as well as the weakling, deteriorates 
tile species ? — A. No, sir; I don't think so. In the first place, the res- 
ervation of males for breeding which we now make is made from the 
best of the species, the youngest, the largest, the ablest, and the 
strongest examples of their kind coming to the islands at the first of 
the season. They are the stronger swimmers, and therefore get there 
first; they are beautiful animals, perfect in every respect. Of these 
this reservation for breeding is made, and it can not be said under 
those circumstances that we kill tlie best and reserve only the poorest, 
because exactly the opposite is the case. 

Senator Heyburn. Let me ask you there, Mr. Lembkev, how 
many seals were born on the island last year, as compared with the 
same period under the leasing s^T-stem ? 

^Ir. Lembkey. I have estimated that a decrease of 5 per cent 
occurred during the past year. The exact number of females is 
about 14,000, I think, something like that; but, as a matter of 
fact, the decrease did not occur tliat is believed by some. 

Now, then, if all the males were allowed to come upon the breeding 
grounds and none were killed, it is my belief, based upon actual obser- 
vation, that the strongest males obtain positions among the cows 
and they are combatted by other males which desire to get stations 



12 ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. 

or to oust them from tlieir preemptions {iiul tlrive them off and take 
their harems, and that, as a matter of fact, from the incessant fighting 
among these males that have succeeded in obtaining a place on the 
rookery, their vigor and vitality is so worn out through excessive 
fighting that sooner or later their places are taken by second-grade 
males tliat theretofore have not been able to obtain a foothold. That 
is my actual observation. 

The Chairman. What did it cost the Government to do the killing 
and selling and the superintending of the killing, during the past 
season 'i 

Mr. Lembkey. Outside of the buying of the plant it cost about 
$23,000 in round numbers. 

Q. Wliat did you pav for the plant under the appropriation ? — A. 
In the neighborhood of $63,000, including merchandise and every- 
thing. 

Q. How much of that was merchandise, do you remember? — A. If 
I remember correctly, about $12,000; about $51,000 was paid for the 
old plant of the fur company. 

Mr. Marshall McLean, of New York City. Mr. Chairman, may I 
ask a question ? 

The Chairman. Certainly. 

Mr. McLean. If, as you say, there was a reduction of 5 per cent in 
the births on the island this year, is it fair to assume that only about 
5 per cent of the females were killed by the pelagic sealers ? 

Mr. Lembkey. No; no conclusion of that kind can be arrived at. 
It would simply mean that the loss might be due to pelagic sealing. 
In other words, the increment equaled 95 per cent of the loss. That 
is the way to put it. 

Q. I was just going to ask what percentage of the females do you 
figure were lost or killed through the operations of the pelagic seal- 
ers. — A. Oh, various estimates are made. I believe that killing in 
Bering Sea consists of at least 75 per cent of the females; on the 
west coast probably below that; but that is a conservative estimate. 

Q. Can you give us any figures as to the pelagic sealing catch of 
last season? — A. I can not; no, sir. 

Prof. Elliott. Sixteen thousand skins; 13,000 by our people on 
the islands and 16,000 by the other agents or pelagic hunters. 

Mr. McLean. Assuming those figures are correct, about 75 per 
cent would be females, as I understand it ? 

Mr. Lembkey. Yes, of course; I could assume from that hypothe- 
sis that 75 per cent of the pelagic catch is from that, but, as a matter 
of fact, it does not seem to work out. 

Prof. Elliott. Some of your reserve males are killed there, too, 
I suppose ? 

Mr. Lembkey. Prof. Elliott, I am addressing the committee at 
the present time; but I suppose some of them are killed, too. 

Mr. Seymour. May I ask a question ? 

The Chairman. You are a member of the Camp Fire Club ? 

Mr. Seymour. I am a member of the legislative committee of the 
Camp Fire Club of America. 

Q. I ask Mr. Lembkey whether, under the present circumstances, 
he would be in favor of this bill for a closed season of five years ? . 

Mr. Lembkey. Under the present circumstances, and disregard- 
ing the information which I have just received here to the effect that 



ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. 13 

a treaty is being concluded, I should say that there was absolutely 
no merit in the bill wliatever. 

Q. For what reason, Mr. Lembkey ? — A. The reason is simply this: 
That the cause of the loss in seal life is the killing of females at sea. 
There is no one who can successfully maintain the proposition that 
the killing on land has ever caused the loss of a single life, except those 
among the surplus males, which are not necessary for breeding pur- 
poses, and for that reason I do not see that the stopping of killing on 
land would in any way go to the merits of the situation or to the root 
of the matter. If you were to stop killing on land, ^^ou would leave 
nearly tliat many more seals for the hunters in the sea to kill. You would 
encourage sea killing by stopping land kilhng, because you would 
give the sea killers so many more seals with which to augment their 
catch. That seems perfectly apparent, and unless it can be proven 
that the killing on land is of such a nature as to prevent the birth of seals 
that otherwise would have been born, you can not prove that the 
stoppage of land killing will in any way relieve this situation. 

The Chairman. Then it is your contention that if you did not kill 
this excess number of males that that larger number would be a greater 
attraction to the pelagic sealers ? 

Mr. Lembkey. Undoubtedly. Now, then, it seems to me that it is 
necessary — since this matter has been gone into, I presume I may 
discuss this feature of it — it will be necessary to obtain at least 
Japanese concurrence in any proposition of this character, for she 
operates possibly 35 pelagic sealers, as against last year 5, I believe, 
Canadian vessels. 

Q. Were those the only vessels engaged last year in pelagic sealing, 
5 Canadian and 35 Japanese? — A. To my knowledge, yes, sir; and 
to the knowledge of any one that has been in that jiortion of the 
country. 

Senator Jones. How does that compare with the preceding year? 

^Ir. Lembkey. I think there were more Japanese. 

The Chairman. What about the allegation that a good many of 
the Japanese sealers are really owned by Americans and merely fly 
the Japanese flag and have Japanese crews in order to get a status 
under international law ? 

Mr. Lembkey. The charge was made some years ago, or the rumor 
was investigated, you might say, to the effect that a United States 
consul in Japan b}^ the name of Kane, who was married to a Japanese 
woman, by the way, had stock in companies which owned quite a 
number of the Japanese pelagic ships. A request was made to the 
State Department to investigate this rumor, and a reply was received 
from the State Department to the effect that they could obtain no 
information whatever which would lead them to believe that Mr. 
Kane was in any way connected with the pelagic sealing business. 
Outside of that one instance I have never heard of an American own- 
ing stock in the Japanese fleet. I have heard persistent rumors to 
the effect that Americans had stock in the Canadian fleet — the Vic- 
toria Sealing Co. (Ltd.) — but outside of those rumors I was never 
able to get any further. 

Q. What did you get for the sealskins sold by the Government last 
year ? — A. If I remember correctly, they netted S403,000, and the net 
revenue to the Government was $183,000 more than the year previous 
under the old leasing system. 



14 ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. 

The Chairman. What was the amount?— A. $403,000 was the 
amount of the f;ross returns, as I rememher. 

Tlie Chairman. Tlie gross charges for kilhng amounted to $83,000 ? 

A. Dr. Evermann states to me that the $403,000 was net returns, 
and not gross. 

Q. Then against that you charge up $83,000 for the balance of the 
kilhng by the Government? — A. Yes, sir; we do that; subtract 
$153,000, we will say, and according to that hasty estimate we would 
get $167,000 more this year in revenue than we did last year. 

Q. What is the total net revenue, deducting the cost of operation ? — 
A. It would be $403,000 less $83,000— $320,000. 

Q. Then, what did it cost the Government last year to police the 
islands with revenue cutters ? — A. There were three cutters on patrol. 
The estimated cost of maintaining this cutter patrol is figured — and 
a very liberal estimate is made, at that — of, say, $10,000 a vessel 
during the summer. That would make, therefore, we will say, 
$30,000 as the cost of the patrol. Of course, this does not include 
the paying of the oflicers and men, because they are always under 
pay by the Government, and the Government is not put to any addi- 
tional expense in maintaining this patrol, except perhaps the extra 
coal and w^ater they woukl consume. 

Senator Clark, of Wyoming. It takes three extra vessels, does 
it not; the fact of their having to be there requires us to have three 
additional vessels ? 

Mr. Lembkey. No, sir; I don't think so. 

Q. Then as a matter of fact, the Government is extravagant in 
supporting three cutters not necessary for the service, except as they 
are used up there ? — A. I don't think you could draw that conclusion, 
sir, for the reason that a cutter is needed in emergencies. She might 
lie in port waiting for some situation to arise which would require her 
service; she might lie there for months and then perhaps she would 
have to render assistance to wrecks almost continuously for a short 
period. These vessels have regular stations on the Pacific coast. 
They abandon these stations during the summer and go to the 
Siberian Sea. After the season is ended, they return to their stations. 
One vessel, I believe, is kept on the Pacific coast of the United States 
during the summer and the remainder of the fleet is sent to the 
Siberian Sea. 

Dr. PIornaday. How many "short 2-year-olds" were killed last 
year ? 

Mr. Lembkey. I do not understand your term. No seals under 2 
years old, to my knowledge, were killed. 

Dr. HoRNADAY. What would be the age of the smallest yearlings 
taken ? 

Mr. Lembkey. Two-3'ear-olds rarely, if any. I may state here, 
Dr. Hornaday, that a great difference of opinoin exists between Mr. 
Elliott and the remaining people who understand this situation. 
There is a great gulf between their opinions, and it can never be 
reconciletl on the question of the weights of skins of 2-year-olds. 

Prof. Elliott. I will present my information in a moment. 

Dr. Hornaday. The minimum weight is what ? 

Mr. Lembkey. Five pounds. During food drives made by the 
natives, when the seals killed are limited to 6^ pounds, in order to 
exclude all these 3-3"ear-olds branded during the summer, you under- 



ALASKAN SEAL FISHEEIES. 15 

stand the natives do kill down a little more closely than our regula- 
tions allow, for the reason that they need the meat, and since they 
have to exclude, all these fine, fat seals over 6^ pounds they go for 
the little fellows a little more closely. 

The Chairman. How^ many seals were killed last year for food by 
the natives ? 

Mr. Lembkey. The limit was 2,500. Speaking offhand, I thmk 
about 2,300 w^ere killed. 

Q. Were anv females killed ?— A. No, sir; not to my knowledge, 
and, as I stated, I carefully interrogated these two gentlemen wdio 
had charge of this killing, and they stated that to their Imowledge 
no female w^as killed. 

Q. What class of males were killed by the natives for food 'i — A. 
Under 6+ pounds, which we adopt to exclude all the 3-year-olds. 
There may be a few small yearlings in that, but w^e believe that is the 
limit of yearlings that were killed for food. There may have been 
some very small yearlings in that; I don't know. 

Senator Heybijen. I would like to ask this witness while on the 
stand this question: In what market were the skins sold by the 
Government and to whom? 

Mr. Lembkey. They were sold in London; the factor that super- 
intended the sale was" Lanipson & Co., the same concern that acted 
in that capacity for the lessee, and they were sold at auction by that 
compan}^ in London. 

Q. Were they sold in large batches? — A. They wTre divided into 
lots of about 83 or 90 and sold in those lots. 

The Chairman. Did one concern buy all the skins ? 

Mr. Lembkey. I have no idea as to that, but I fancy that bidders 
were numerous. 

Senator LIeybuen. Were the purchasers as numerous as the 
bidders ? 

Mr. Lembkey. I have no idea as to that. Senator. 

The Chairman. Naturally not; they wouldn't do that. 

Senator Heyburn. I wanted to get at the combmation. 

Mr. McLean. After the skins are removed, can you distinguish 
between a male and female 2-year-old? 

Mr. Lembkey. Yes, sir; at once. Oh, I beg pardon — 2-year-olds? 

Q. After the skm is removed from the anmial? — A. If you would 
look at the carcass of a 2-year old you could not distinguish it readily, 
but the man skmning the seal recognizes it the monemt he takes it 
into his hand to skm It. Of course lie examines the organs and mat- 
ters of that kind. 

Q. But the animal is then dead? — A. The animal is then dead. 

Q. What I asked 3^ou was this — after the skin is removed from the 
animal, by the inspection of the skin itself could you distinguish 
between a male or a female 2-year old. — A. You could by looking at 
the teats of the animal. 

Q. And are they developed on a 2-year-old female? — A. I don|t 
know that they are. You could find them there possibly. I don't 
know whether they are developed or not; I never examined a skin to 
find out. 

The Chairman. How positive can you be, then, IVIr. Lembkey, that 
no females are killed ? 



16 ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. 

Mr. Lembkey. The reason iij)()ii which I base that positive state- 
ment that no females are killed is this: String^ent orders are given 
to all the skinners to report at once any female knocked down in the 
drives. They are ordered to report it to the agent in charge of the 
killing and in charge of the men. 

Mr. McLean. Is there a penalty then inflicted upon the killer for 
killing the female and when he reports it? 

Mr. Lembkey. No; because the killing gang consists of six per- 
sons, we will say, and it is impossible to tell which one of those six 
knocked down the seal; but if a female should be knocked down by 
accident an admonition is given to the clubbers. 

Q. So that it is cjuite possible? — A. They are jacked up. 

Q. It is quite possible if a female was killed through inadvertence 
that the native might not report it? — A. No; because the man who 
reports the presence of the female would not in the least be culpable, 
because he is a skinner, having nothing to do with the killing. 

Q. He is probably a relative? — A. I should not sav that. There 
is no great penalty attachetl to the killing of a female, such as to 
lead the men to suppress the fact of its presence. 

Q. You said a few moments ago that of course you could not be 
present at every killing. When you are not there, who is in charge 
of the selection of the seals for the killing gang ? — A. There is an assist- 
ant agent in charge on every island. As a matter of fact, there are 
two agents on every island, and one of these is always in charge. 

Q. And is he present at the time of the killing ? — A. He is actively 
present; always right on the line among the killers, and so forth and 
so on. 

Q. How often did you drive there this season, Mr. Lembkey ? — A. 
There were thirty-odd drives made on St. Paul and about 15, I 
should take it, on St. George. I have these statistics. Of course I 
did not hear of this hearing until last night and could not get together 
all the information I have. 

Q. How many a week; how many drives a week? — A. Well, on 
St. Paul there are three hauling-out grounds, and they are driven 
once a week, you might say. 

Q. Do you find through the marking of these various bulls that 
the same bulls are repeatedly driven or driven several times ? — A. 
Well, that is a fact that is beyond dispute, really. The same seal is 
driven several times, there is no doubt of that ; but we have percentages 
of hauling in the. case of 2-year-olds and 3-year-olds. We do know 
that not all of the 3-year-olds that are marked for breeding come 
back. Only a certain percentage of them return, whereas, in the 
case of the 2-year-olds, more return than were marked, so that the 
rejections of the 2-year-old class are greater than the number actu- 
ally in existence, whereas in tlie 3-year-old class the rejections are 
smaller than the number actually in existence. 

Senator Heyburn. I would like to ask you there if it is true that 
some seals take to the water and some on the islands never take to 
the water at all ? 

Mr. Lembkey. There is a period from November until May during 
which there are no seals present at all. 

Q. You have to depend upon the number marked for estimates as 
to the number that return from the water to the land? — A. Our 
estimates are based upon the herd when it is present at its greatest 



ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. 17 

numbers fluring the summer. Any estimate we make is made while 
the seals are on land. I do not just exactly tjjather what you mean. 

Q. ¥.lien they- take to the water, do they return again to the 
land ? — A. Well, the}^ leave, perhaps, the middle of November, and 
the first bull does not return until the following May. Then the 
females come along about the middle of June. 

Mr. McLean. Mr. Lembkey, in your opinion, does this frequent 
driving of the bulls which are rejected have any effect upon their 
health or virility ? 

Mr. Lembkey. Not in the least. The age of puberty occurs 
between two and three years. As a matter of fact, it is almost a 
subject of microscopic examination to tell whether such a thing 
occurs, but it would be demonstrated in the breeding herd itself — • 
that is to say, if cows were found fertilized, you would know that 
the bulls had properly performed their functions. If, on the other 
hand, you would find on the breeding grounds a number of cows 
without pups, then the question would at once present itself whether 
the bulls were fertile or not. As a matter of fact, we have never 
found a barren cow, except in several instances where a post-mortem 
examination disclosed that she had some defect in her organs which 
precluded her from becoming pregnant. 

Q. I want to read just a short excerpt from your report concern- 
ing the Alaska seal fisheries, as follows: 

The rookeries of this island were driven twice a week during the past season, with 
the exception of Zapadni. It is a question if this is not too often, especially with the 
fast driving which the natives are likely to make in rainy weather or when the seals 
from any cause are lively. On our last drive, which was made in a rainstorm, sev- 
eral of the seals were observed with abraded flippers and testes. This condition 
was observed by both Mr. Chechester and myself, and he ascribed it at the time to 
frequent driving. I mention it here to suggest inquiry and the remedy. I will add 
that the condition named was not noticed until our very last sealing. 

That was in your report, signed by Maj. Clark, and is dated August 
8, 1904. Have you changed your views since the time of making 
that report? — A. I did not make that report, as the gentleman 
has just pointed out. That report was made by Maj. Clark. The 
matter that he complains of is abraded flippers and testes. He 
doesn't mean testes; he means the scrotum. I do not beheve an 
abrasion of the scrotum will affect the virility of any animal. 

Q. Just one other point, in respect to the feeding of the seals; 
the feeding of these bulls. Do you consider that to be wise ? — A. I 
do not, sir; I consider it a disadvantage. Nature provides an 
ehminative process for the seal. The seal before it has learned 
to feed and before it has learned to swim beyond the borders of 
its rookeries and before it has learned to seek food for itself, is driven 
by the climate off tlie land and forced to make its first winter migra- 
tion in the waters of the northern ocean. That seal has to with- 
stand such hardships as eliminate all but the strongest and the 
most vigorous. Those that come back to the islands the following 
spring have no physical defect. 

The Chairman. We only have a few more minutes. Mr. Elliott 
has been in the city for two or three weeks and is recognized as the 
early authority on seal life, and we would like to hear from him 
as to the purpose^of this closed-season proposition, as to whether 
or not it is the wise or necessary thing to do. 

95100— No. 1—11 2 



16 ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. 

STATEMENT OF PROF. HENRY W. ELLIOTT. 

Mr. Elliott. Gontlomen, and members of the committee, I want to 
say that so much has })een well covei-ed here ])v the chairman and by 
Dr. Hornaday, and by the other gentlemen, that I shall not say a good 
■deal that I intended to say. I shall confine myself to the question of 
the i)re8ervation of seal life, which Mr. Lembkey has just declared to 
the committee that he is saving. 

Let me picture to you the arrival of a seal and the way it is "saved" 
•on the islands, and then tliis committee will be able to underetand 
that in s])ite of ''saving" and "protecting" this life the operation of 
vthis work on the islands is absolutely null and void. The seals arrive 
in June; they are welcomed by Mr. Lembkey and the natives, as he 
says. They are the "fine fellows," the "early swimmers" to the 
islands. He welcomes them. He has his natives down there at the 
surf margin, and they drive them up to the village where they bring 
on a forked stick and })in them down one by one by the necks and 
heads. Then they shear off a little tuft or patch of hair from the neck 
or the skull caps. Very well. They pass. They come back from the 
drives once or twice, perhaps three times during the season. They are 
^'spared, " are they ? Let us see. 

Wliere have they gone after Mr. Lembkey "spared" them and 
sheared them as immune ? They have gone to the hauling-out grounds 
and then they have gone out to sea to return again. They have run 
out through a gantlet of Japanese hunters, 35 vessels [Tjembkey tells 
us], which equals 2,500 men, w^atching for them. Then as thev go out 
that gantlet — out to the "old mill pond" where they feed, some 80 
or 100 miles away, there they meet our pelagic Canadian hunter 
friends. They escape, perhaps, and then in the same way run back 
to the islands. After two or three weeks passed there then they are 
off again to feed and return; thus, they run this gantlet again and 
again, do these "spared" seals, still with this mark on their heads, and 
we assume they are not killed up to date. 

The season goes on. Mr. Lembkey and his men have "spared" 
these seals all right; perhaps the Canadians and the Japanese hunters 
have spared them. Granted they have. September comes. They 
have come back to the islands. They have shed their hair by the end 
of September and they haul out in October with not a mark upon 
them and not a sign of the mark that Mr. Lembkey has put upon 
them last June and July. 

Then what happens, gentlemen? "Those are nice seals," says 
Mr. Lembkey. "We need some food for the natives. Kill tliem." 
They are rounded up and they are killed wherever thev are f oomd . 

Give me that Senate document No. 98 and I will read the official 
record of their killing, after they are "branded" or "spared," in July. 
I want Mr. Lembkey to face this. 

Mr. Lembkey. I will admit the statement in the document. 

Prof. Elliott. That report is true. It is by Mr. Judge, who is here, 
introduced to me as your associate and your equal and your brother 
official. 

Mr. Lembkey. And superior, perhaps. 



ALASKAiS" SEAL FISHERIES. 19 

Proi. Elliott. Don't sneer at your associate; he is your peer; one 
is as good as the other. [Readuig:] 

Report of Agent James Judge 

Senator Heyburn. State the tlocument and the page from wliich 
you read. 

Prof. Elliott. Senate Document No. 98. Fifty-ninth Congress, 
first session, })age86. Here is the ofhcial report of Mr. W. I. Lembkey, 
in which the preservation and protection and conservation of tliis seal 
life, which Jie so graphically described to you a moment ago, is blown 
clear out of water by its own force of official denial. 

REPORT OF AGENT JAMES JUDGE. 

St. George Island, June 5, 190.5. 
Dear Sir: I have the honor to submit the following report of affairs on St. George 
Island, coverii5g the interval from August 14, 1904, to date: 

SEALS. 

On October 7 Little East Rookery was carefully gone over for the purpose of counting 
dead pups, but none were found. 

At that season foxes in greater or less numbers are always present on the rookeries 
and quickly eat the pups or older animals that may happen to die. Pup skulls were 
frequently found during September in the rear of the rookeries, where they had 
undoubtedly been left by the foxes, the bodies having been devoured. 

Further counting of dead pups was therefore not attempted, as it seemed a disturb- 
ance of the seals to no good purpose. 

The first food drive was made October 19; killed, 59; dismissed, 6 large; 197 small 
and 6 brands. Two of the latter were from St. Paul. While all brands were very 
faint, those made with shears were lees discernible than those made with hot irons. 
Just the slightest trace of a brand on one of the dead informed us that the wrong 
animal had been knocked down. The skin weighed 8 pounds. That other 3-year- 
olds branded in the spring, on which the fur had grown out so that the brand had 
become obliterated, were also killed is more than probaljle, as 69 per cent of the 
dead skins weighed 7 pounds and over, the heaviest weighing 9 pounds. 

Mr. Lembkey. May I interrupt the gentleman just a second to ask 
whether the report does not state that Mr. Judge at once took meas- 
ures to prevent the killuig of any more of these branded seals by 
limiting the weights of skins to 6^ pounds, a practice which has been 
followed ever since ? 

Prof. Elliott. Six and a half pounds also carries big skins. You 
saved no seals last spring that weighed 8 pounds. They never haul 
out there now, and they are not there, and you know it. 

The average of this class of animals killed from the 20tli to the 30th of last July 
was 43 per cent, while that on St. Paul during the entire sealing season was onh' 34 
per cent. The paucity of branded seals in the drive as compared with drives made 
in July lead to the same conclusion. (See statistics regular killing for quota 1904. ) 

At all subsequent killings I endeavored to restrict tlie slaughter to 2-year-olds, 
with considerable success. 

October 24 a food drive was made from East rookery and 30 killed. Among this 
lot 2 skins were found that had been branded, but the brands were too faint for detec- 
tion while the animal was alive. These skins weighed f>\ pounds each. 

That other branded 2-year-olds on which the brands had entirely disappeared 
were killed during the autumn is more than probable, but for this there was no appar- 
ent remedy without a radical revision of the rules governing sizes. 

To remove all possibility of killing branded seals in the fall on which the brands 
have become indistinct it will be necessary to prohibit the slaughter of any aiiimal 
the skin of which weighs over fi pounds. " This will confine tlie killing to anitnals 
with skins weighing not less than 5i nor more than (i pounds. Such a rule is hardly 
practicaljle. 



20 ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. 

• And SO they killed these fine seals, 69 ])er cent jibove the average. 
Why (lid they kill them ? For food ? Do the natives want these big 
seals for food ? No. 

In my npinion, however, a relaxation ol' the niininiiun rule as regards weights of 
skins should be permitted at fo(;d killings on St. George. 

That is his opinion; that is what he alludes to; but the returns 
from the London sales show that killing the big seals is a common 
sequence. 

Senator Clark of Wyoming. Prof. Elliott, what percentage of the 
entire killing is included in the kill for food ? 

Prof. Elliott. That is a difficult thing to get, because they will 
carry these food skins over into the quota for the next year, and 
they are sold in London, and I can not prove it. 

Q. I am not asking you what you can prove; but you are very 
familiar with alTairs up there. Haven't you some sort of an idea of 
how many of th'?se animals are killed there every year? — A. They 
killed 614, for ii^stance 

Q. Six hundred and fourteen out of how manv thousand? They 
killed 12,000 last year. 

The Chairman. Two thousand three hundred, Mr. Lembkey stated, 
were killed for food. What becomes of the skins of the 2,300 killed 
for food, Mr. Lembkey ? 

Mr. Lembkey. They were delivered to the lessee, just the same as 
those skins which the lessee took himself. 

Q. But since the Government took charge ? — A. They are shipped 
to London. Skins were not taken that were not eligible. 

Q. But the 2,300 skins that the natives kill for food are turned 
over to your London factor for sale ? — A. Yes, sir. 

Prof. Elliott. Mr. Lembkey says there is a great gulf between the 
official knowledge to-day on the seal islands and the official knowledge 
which existed when I was a member of the Government staff up there. 
There is a great gulf. In 1872, 1873, and 1874, as an ofhcer of the 
Government, I cooperated with four offfcial assistants and seven 
agents of the lessees in preparing a table of weights and ages for skins 
of seals. That tabulation and agreement, made official and officially 

{)ublished b}" the Government in this official monogra])h and repub- 
ished by the Department of Fisheries as Special Bulletin Xo. 176, 
1882, page 81, has been the standard, unquestioned and undoubted 
by an}'^ living man, until Mr. Lembkey put a table forward two years 
ago to cover these short weights which he was taking and sending 
over to London as ''2-year-old males." This official publication, 

Eassing through the hands of dozens of men ofiicially before ]\Ir. 
lembkey came there, and agreed to and officially submitted and pub- 
lished by the Government 30 yeare ago, is changed by him to-day. 
Why ? Have the seals changed in their annual order of growing and 
weights ? No. The seal that is born on the islands to-day is born 
exactly as it was 30 years ago. After he is reared, he goes to sea and 
comes back, lives and dies, exactly as I studied it 30 years ago and 
described it. 

Where is the gulf ? The gulf is in the recent assertion of these 
gentlemen: not in the official fact, which was agreed to for yeai"s and 
years before Mr. Lembkey came there, and never was disputed, even 
by m}' bitterest enemies, until two years ago, when this question was 



ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. 21 

furtive!}^ raised and a table put out to sliield this work in this Senate 
document No. 98. 

I brought this question of weights and sizes up before Mr. Hitchcock 
in 1904, wlio had charge of the seal business. Mr. Lembkey was in 
his office. He remembers well the sessions I had with Mr. Hitchcock 
over this business — over the preparation of regulations which would 
forbid them from killing down too close. Mr. Hitchcock called his 
advisers together^Dr, Jordan and the rest of the "scientific" 
officials. Tliey said: "No; there isn't any need to make this 
reserve which Mr. Lembkey is so proud of talking about to-day. 
Don't need it. Elliott is a crank and a tiresome fellow." But, Mr. 
Hitchcock said, after weighing the evidence and facing the Com- 
mittee on Ways and Means (for I had to bring them up there to get a 
settlement) , that the Department of Commerce and Labor would put 
this check on their work; that they would make this reservation, in 
accordance with my recommendations, as to the need of it. Wliat 
follow^ed? The regulations were prepared and issued May 1, 1904, 
so that "nothing under 2 years of age" should be taken, and under 
the skin weight of 5^ pounds — as the minimum weight to be taken. 
That just saved them, because a well-grown "yearling's" skin will 
weigh 4^ pounds, and a "short" 2-year-old will weigh 5 pounds — 
a "runty," a "short" 2-year-old will weigh 5 pounds, a good 2-year- 
old skin weighs 6, with its half pound of blubber attached. 

Mr. Hitchcock put a minimum of 5^ pounds. What followed? 
They came to him, the lessees, and urged him to reduce it to a 5-pound 
minimum. He refused. Two years later it w^as changed by order of 
the Secretary of Commerce and Labor to a minimum of 5 pounds, and 
every "short" 2-year-old and every "long" yearling seal that comes 
out on those islands is raked in and killed. After this "reservation" 
in June has been made this check on the destruction of that life is thus 
nulHfied at the expense of our people in the name of " official science." 
I am tired of it. There is a gulf between fact and fiction as to this 
business, and there is imperative need that these herds on those islands 
shall be turned back to the solitude and peace which God Almighty 
created there in the beginning, which alone can restore that life to 
what it was. We can not do it. This vanity and frilling about in the 
name of "science" by these men, this "selection" and this impotent 
"improvement" on the law^s of the Creator is absolutely grotesque 
and futile. That life is ebbing out day by day as we sit here. Noth- 
ing has been done since 1890 to stop it. It is a long story. I have 
documents, figures, and facts which cover the whole thing from start 
to finish, which show that nothing since 1890, when I then came down 
here and started this very same bill now before you, has been done. 
I wanted the lessees taken from the islands then and some provision 
made for their property, and I wanted these seals sent back to their 
Creator for a rest and a chance to regain their strength. 

I knew very w^ell we could not do anything unless we stopped killing 
on the islands. The British would not submerge their private inter- 
ests — "Not until you put your butchers down," the}^ said. They 
w^ere right in 1890; they are'^ right to-day. They waited all last sum- 
mer to see what we were going to do. Did w^e do anything ? Oh, no; 
just butchered seals as usual. I will tell you, gentlemen, w^hat we 
did. These "official science" advisers of "^Secretary Nagel, headed 
by Dr. David Starr Jordan, the "prince of peace," who don't believe 



22 ALASKAlSr SEAL FISHERIES. 

any of it — this ''prince of peace" asks our State Department to do 
what? To invite Japan, Russia, Canada, and ourselves to attend a 
joint international conference, wherein we will "protect" the seals, 
the blue foxes, and the walrus, and the sealions, and the whales, and 
all other things mostly marine life, or in the water. That is all that 
has been done since this bill was passed. Now, we know wliat is 
being done; but, of course, it was adverted to this morning, and I 
am glad it was. Things are coming our way. If they were not, I 
would open a box to-day. But I will say nothing, because I think 
the end is close at hand, and just as we want it, gentlemen. 

But, gentlemen, let fiction pass for a moment. The hides of the 
seals are taken as mercilessly on the Pribilof Islands to-day, and as 
greedily, as those butchers have ever taken them in the water. 
There is not the slightest difference between the spirit which has 
animated the one or the other, and the influence here in Washington 
has been so strong that nothino; could be done to dislodge them on 
the islands; until they were dislodged on the islands, you could not 
do anything at Ottawa. But let it be said to the infinite credit of 
the British ambassador and the infinite credit of Sir Wilfred Laurier, 
that there has not been an hour since 1905, when John Hay, and Sir 
Mortimer Durand and certain United States senators united in an 
agreement that we could not have closed in forty-eight hours — this 
whole business, and have sent this question of saving the seals back 
to the Creator, who alone can restore it. 

Don't talk about trouble with Japan or with Russia. The trouble 
is with ourselves. I have nothing more to say; it is not necessary. 
I have documents, figures, books, and reports here, and if any body 
wants to question my statements, I am ready to meet them. 

The Chairman (Senator Dillingham). Are there others to be 
heard ? 

Dr. HoRNADAY. That is all we have to offer, Mr, Chairman. 

The Chairman. The committee will then rise. 

(Thereupon, at 12 o'clock and 10 minutes p. m., the committee 
adjourned.) 



In re Fur Seal Herd of Alaska. 

Hon. John H. Rothermel, 

Chairman Committee on Experuliiures in tJie 
Department of Commerce ajul Labor, 

House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. 

Sir: It is my imperative duty as a good citizen, and possessed of 
abundant knowledge, authentic and indisputable and of oflicial and 
current record, to submit the following charges and proof of them for 
the consideration of your honorable committee. 

Charge I. — I charge that the conduct of the officialism of the 
Department of Commerce a,nd I^'bor, having the specific control of 
all details of administration of the public business on the seal islands 
of Alaska since January 1, 1905, has been guilty of violating the law 
and regulations which it is and was tlie sworn duty of that officialism 
aforesaid to properly and strictly obey. 

Charge II. — I charge that this malfeasance of that officialism, 
above cited, has caused an immense loss of public property on the seal 



ALASKAN h-EAL PISliEillES. 23 

islands of iUaska, aiul tliat unless your li()n,)ri\ble conimitteo take 
prompt action to check and abolish it this same oi'Iicialism will in a 
short period of continuance of its methods be able to and will succeed 
in completely destroying the commercial value forever of the fur-seal 
herd or iUaska. 

Theje charges, gentlemen, are serious; they are made with a full 
sense of their gravity; they will be submitted now in detail to you as 
fact succeeds fact of ofhcial record in the premises; no assertion, no 
opinion of mine or anyone else will be even hinted at, much less men- 
tioned by me, in tjie following expose of this improper and illegal work 
of those agents of our Government in charge of the care and conser- 
vation of the public interests on the seal islands of Alaska. 

As to Charge I. — On the 3d of May, 1900, I entered into an engage- 
ment with the late John Hay to furnish him with the expert fur-seal 
knowledge, which he desired to possess, with which to enable him to 
set aside the erroneous findings of the Jordan-Thompson Commission, 
as written into an official joint agreement November 16, 1897, at the 
State Department. These fijidings prevented any revision of the 
rules and regulations of the Bering Sea tribunal, as ordered August 
16, 1893, and enforced April 24, 1894. These rules and regulations 
actually facilitated and still facilitate the destruction of our fur-seal 
herd instead of protecting and conserving it. 

On the 26th of November, 1903, Mr. Hay and I learned that no 
change in these Bering Sea rules would be agreed to by Canada unless 
we suspended the work of our lessees on the seal islands of Alaska. 

On the 8th of January, 1904, I addressed a detailed letter to the 
Secretary of Commerce and Labor, setting forth in detail those reasons 
why the work of the lessees should be discontinued on the seal islands 
and why they were injurious, and why, if not checked up, would 
compass the complete extinction of the commercial value of the 
fur-seal herd. 

On the 12th of January, 1904, Senator Dillingham, as chairman of 
the subcommittee of the Senate charged with Alaskan affairs (by 
Senate Resolution 16, of March 19, 1903), introduced Senate bih 3355 
and a report of that committee (S. Rept. No. 282, 58th Cong., 2d 
sess). This bill and report was for the complete suspension of this 
work of the lessees on the seal islands of Alaska and in exact accord 
with the views of Secretary Hay and myself on that issue. 

Not being able to get any response from the Secretary of Commerce 
and Labor to my rerpiest that this work of the Seal Island lessees be 
suspended, with the cooperation of Secretary Hay, I carried this 
issue to the Ways and Means Committee of the House of Representa- 
tives early in March, 1904; on March 9-10, 1904, the committee heard 
me and Mr. F. Hitchcock, chief clerk of the Department of Com- 
merce and Labor. Mr. Hitchcock said that while all of the officialism 
in charge of the seal herd was opposed to any interference which the 
work of the lessees, yet he was of opinion that some check such as I 
desired ought to be made. He therefore said to the committee that 
he was delegated by the Secretary to pledge the department's action 
in that direction. This pledge was to put an immediate partial 
check on the killing by the lessees and a complete suspension of that 
work whenever Great Britain would suspend her work at sea. 

The Secretar}'- of Commerce and Labor, on May 1, 1904, ordered 
this check upon the work of the I'^-sees, as pledged to the Ways and 



24 ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. 

]\Iean8 Committee, jNiarch 10, 1904, as above cited. Tliis ciieck is 
known as the "Hitclicock rules," of Mav 1, 1904. (See S. Doc. No. 
114, 5St]i (V:)ng., 3d sess., p. 3.) 

Diirino; this hearing, on March 20, 1904, before the Ways and 
Means Committee, as above cited, l\ir. Hitclicock submitted to the 
committee as his idea a table of the weights of those green sealskins, 
as to their ages when taken by the lessees. (This is published in the 
hearing, and made an appendix to his remarks.) Mr. Plitchcock 
made a great blunder in compiling it; he frankly admitted the same 
to me when I took the printed copy of this hearing to him, March 31, 
1904. He promisetl to correct this blunder and make the Hitchcock 
rules in accordance. He did so (see p. 9, S. Doc. Xo. 114), and fixed 
a minimum of 5^ pounds for the smallest skins, and further ordered 
that no seals "under 2 years of age" should be taken. Thus, clearly 
and positively, after tliis order of May 1, 1904, all killing or any killing 
of yearling seals by the lessees was in violation of law and is to-day. 

The following letter explains fully this blunder of Mr. Hitchcock 
and why the Hitchcock rules made 5^ pounds the minimum, instead 
of 5 pounds, as the erroneous table ordered. 

Washington, D. C, March dl, 1904. 
Hon. Sereno E. Payne, 

Chairman Committee Ways and Means. 

My Dear Sir: On page 59 of the heaiing over the Alaskan fur seal herd, before the 
Ways and Means Committee, March 9-10, 1904, is a table of Alaskan seal skin weights 
submitted in evidence by the representative of the Department of Commerce and 
Labor. 

I respectfully desire to call your attention to a grave and fundamental error in the 
table aforesaid, because Mr. Hitchcock makes an extended statement to you on page 
56, based upon this error, which he innocently assumes to be an authentic record of 
the London sale covered by this table. 

In this table you will observe that the class of "middlings and smalls" is omitted 
from the order of weight averages, and in its place the class of "smalls" has been 
erroneously inserted. 

This erroneous insertion moves all of the lower classes, including the "smalls," 
up, wrongfully, one year in age. Thus the 2-year-old seals or "large pups " (" 6-pound " 
skins), are made to take the place of the 3-year-olds or "smalls" (" 7 to 8 pounds "skins), 
and so on to the end of the list. 

In this way Mr. Hitchcock has been imposed upon, and a fictitious showing of only 
2,272 yearling skins is made, when, in truth, 13,000 of this catch classified in that 
table are yearlings or "5-pound" skins. 

I have called Mr. Hitchcock 's attention to this error, and he now understands it. 
He will not, therefore, make the blunder of allowing the lessees to take "5-pound" 
skins, or "yearlings" next summer, and thus violate his pledge to your committee. 
He will fix the minimum skin weight at "6 pounds," and thus insure the killing of 
nothing under 2-year-olds. 

I am, very respectfully, yours, etc., Henry W. Elliott. 

In this distinct and explicit order of May 1, 1904, published by 
Secretary of Commerce and Labor, any killing of yearling seals on 
the seal islands by the lessees was made illegal, if so done; was it 
done? It was — it was immediately resumed in 1904, just as it had 
been done on those islands since 1896. Observe the following proof 
of it which has thus far never been met or denied over the signa- 
ture of any Secretary of Commerce and Labor. As j^ou read this 
evidence, gentlemen, please bear in mind that this check ordered 
on that killing, by the lessees, known as the ''Hitchcock rules" of 
May 1, 1904, was literally forced on the Secretary of Commerce and 
Labor by myself and the senatorial committee (Gov. Dillingham, 
chairman). We did this between the Sth of January, 1904, and 



ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. 25 

March 20, 1904. I wisli you to bear this fact m mind, also, that this 
officiaHsm which viohited that order and pledge to Congress in 1904 
is the same subordinate officialism which is to-day still in charge of 
that life, and it was engaged in this same violation of the "Hitch- 
cock rules" up to date of August 1, 1910, when the sealing slaughter 
work ended for that season. 

The following open, clear expose of it which I made in the kind- 
liest and most charitable manner was silently and brazenh" ignored 
by Mr. Metcalf and these same subordinates who to-day have led 
Mr. Nagel into the mire of that illegal slaughter by his orders last 
summer. 

[Senate Document No. 149, Fifty-eighth Congress, third session.] 

Washington, D. C, Februan/ 6, 1905. 

My Dear Sir: I have a copy of the letter from the Secretary of Commerce and Labor 
transmitting to the United States Senate a transcript of the regulations and instruc- 
tions which were made and ordered by the department for the conduct of affairs on 
the seal islands of Alaska, dated Mav 1. 1904, and also the report of the agent in charge 
of the seal islands, dated August 12' 1904 (S. Doc. No. 114, 58th Cong., 3d sess.). 

These regulations and instructions are an immense improvement over the Treasury 
regulations of 1903, which they supplant; they are admirable, in so far as they safe- 
guard the public interests, as they should be in almost every respect. They also dis- 
tinctly instruct the agents of the department as to specific lines of duty, and distinctly 
assert the complete control of the business of taking fur seals, as it is vested in the 
Government, even though it is leased. 

The reservation made by these regulations of 1,000 2-year-old male seals and 1,000 
3-year-olds during the season of 1904. by which these young bulls shall be permitted 
to grow up and go over to the breeding grounds in 1907 and 1908, and so prevent at 
that time the complete extermination of the virile male life on the rookeries which 
otherwise would take place, seems to have been faithfully carried out by the agents 
of the department. 

But in this connection that order of reservation must be extended to 4-year-old 
males next season (1905) or the 3-year-oIds saved as such in 1904 will be taken by the 
lessees. Unless this extension to the 4-year-old class is made for 1905 the reservation 
of the 3-year-olds in 1904 will be nullified by the lessees in 1905. Beyond this point 
1 can see no flaw in the text of these "Hitchcock rules and regulations" aforesaid. 

With regard to the report of the agent in charge of the seal islands, several significant 
disclosures are made in it as to the condition of the herd up to August 1, 1904. 

First. Only 10,232 fur seals were secured in the season of 1904 — i. e., from June 1 
to August 1 — nearly all yearlings and 2-year-olds, nine-tenths of this catch being 4^ 
to 5^ pound skins. 

Second. So close were these seals driven and taken in that time that nothing 
escaped the club on the killing grounds except the "runty" yearlings (3^ to 4 pound 
skins), and the old and vagrant bulls which were scraped up by the drivers in their 
effort to get every killable male seal — i. e., every 4J to 7 pound skin — that was in 
sight at any time during the season. 

The agent says that in all this driving there were "641 large rejections" — 1. e., bulls 
of any age from 6 years to 18 — but this count of "641 large rejections" does not mean 
that 641 individual bulls were so rejected, not at all. Some of these individual bulls 
have been counted six, eight, or ten times into this total of 641, as they came up in the 
semiweekly and weekly drives to be released and then redriven over and over again 
until the end of the season, therefore the "641 large rejections" mean no more than 
200 or 250 vagrant, worthless bulls, v/hich are useless as breeders and valueless for 
skins. 

The "4,794 small rejections" mean so.i-e 1,000 to 1,500 undergrown yearlings or 
"runts." which the "Hitchcock minimum limit" of a 5-^-pound skin excluded. These 
"runts" could not be "loaded" with blubber so as to weigh into 5i pounds, and pass 
the Government agent's limit; but all of the average yearlings or 4|-pound skins were 
easily loaded -wdth a pound of blubber in skinning, and so passed up to the minimum 
limit of 5^- pounds. 

Third. The agent tells us that "no yearlings were included in the catch and but 
few were seen in the drives." Then he unwittingly denies this statement by telling 
us that he "killed one yearling during the summer to determine the weight of that 
class of skins. The entire animal, a female, weighed 33 pounds and its pelt weighed 
3^ pounds." 



26 



ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. 



Unfortuniitely for ^ifr. Lembky, the recordw of 4.S32 fiir-BKiI pups when 6 months old 
and then killed and weighed in bunches ol' 25 and 50 on St. Pauls Island November 5 
to 10, 1872, declared the average weight of each pup to be 39 pouads; the skin weight 
of each pup was 3^ pounds. 

The wei;^ht of 150 yearlings killed on St. Pauls Island May 21, 1872, for natives' food 
averaged 40 to 42 pounds each; their pelts uveratred 4^5 j)onnds each. Some of these 
yearlings were exceptionally well grown and weighed up to a 5-pound pelt: others, 
a few only, were "runts," and did not weigh up above a 3^-po\md or pup-skin weight. 

Fourth. So, instead of seeing no yearlings in the drives, this agent has taken them 
just the same, and has called them "2-year-olds," and the record of the London sale 
I if all of these skins a few months later declares hia blunder. The skin which he calls 
a yearling and which " weighed 'i^ pounds" was a "runt;" it is classified as an " Ex. ex. 
small l)up" in the London sale; a 4-pound skin is an " Ex. sm. pup;" a 4.}-pound skin 
is a " Small pup" or average yearling; a 5-pound skin to 5i-pound skin is a " Middling 
pup." which is a "long" yearling or a "short" 2-year-old; and a "Large pup" is a 
6-pound skin to a G^-pound skin, or an average well-grown 2-year-old male seal pelt 
with the usual one-half pound of blubber adherent as cut from the carcass in skinning. 

Fifth. This admission of the Government agent that he has taken every young seal 
that hauled out on the seal islands of Alaska during this season of 1904, save a few 
"runts" which the Hitchcock restrictions could not be stretched down low enough to 
admit of his taking, points out the exact and positive truth of what I assured you last 
winter with regard to the condition of this herd on the Pribilof Islands. 

I told you then that the records of the London sales of the Pribilof catches from 1900 
to 1903, inclusive, declared that the lessees were actually draining the very dregs of the 
young male life, and permitting nothing to escape for service on the breeding grounds. 

Now we have the explicit admission of the agent in charge of the islands, who, at 
the close of the season's work of 1904, reports this fact to his chief. He does not mean 
to tell all he knows, but he can not help it. The records of the London sales, Decem- 
ber 16, 1904, show exactly the size and weight of every one of 5,000 skins which the 
lessees took during June and July, 1904, and up to the end of the season. Then he 
tells us that he has not taken any yearlings this year, and "few w^ere seen in the drives" 
(1904), and does not know what has become of them. 

But the agent of the lessees who sold these skins, taken under Mr. Lembkey's eyes 
on St. Paul Island last siunmer, tells us on December 16, 1904, that nearly nine-tenths 
of the catch are yearling skins. He does so, because the bidders at this sale can not 
be deceived by the appearance of these skins, which are always exposed to their 
inspection four weeks annually prior to this public sale. 

The following is an epitomized record of that regular annual London sale above 
cited: Twenty thousand Pribilof skins were offered and sold; 5,000 of this total being 
the catch of 1904, and 15,000 being the balance of the catch of 1903, whic-h were carried 
over to this sale, this leaves 8,000 of the 1904 catch to be carried in turn over to the 
sale of December 16, 1905. 

London classification of 5,000 skins, taken on the Pribilof Islands, June and July, 1904, 

sold December 16, 1904. 



Class. 



Age. 



Weight o£ 

skins, 
each, av- 
erage, 38 

takea 
from the 
carcass. 



Number 
of 

skins. 



Middlings 

Middlings and smalls... 

Smalls 

Large pups 

Middling pups 

Small pups 

Extra small pups 

Extra extra small pups. 



4-year olds 

''Short" 4-year olds and "long "3-year olds. 

3-year olds 

2-year olds 

"Short" 2-year olds and "long" yearlings.. 

Yearlings 

"Short" yearlings 

"Runt" yearlings 



Pounds. 

12-14 

9-11 

7-8 

G 

5i 

^ 

3i-4 
3 



Catch of 1904, classified total. 





198 

46 

838 

1,703 

1,779 

257 

1 



4,882 



With US skins not rated, but offered as "faulty," "cut," etc. 



ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. 



2r 



London classification of 15,000 skins taken on (he Pribilof Islands, June and July, 1903, 

sold Dec. 16, 1904. 



Classes. 



Ages. 



Weight of 
skin, av- 
erage 
each, as 
taken 
from the 
carcass. 



Number 
of skins. 



Middlings 

Middlings and smails . . . 

Smalls 

Large pups 

Middling pups, 

Small pups 

Extra small pups 

Extra extra small pups . 



4 years old 

"Short" 4-year-olds and "Ioh^' 3-year-olds. 

3-year-olds 

2-year-olds 

"Short" 2-year-olds and "long" yearUngs.. 

Yearlings 

" Short" yearlings 

"Runt " yearlings _. . 



Pounds. 
12-14 
9 -11 

7-8 


^ 

3i- 4 
3 



13 

90 

495 

1,177 

3,969 

5,439 

3,273 

106 



Catch of 1903, classified total. 



14, 579 



With 421 skins not rated, but offered as "faulty," "cut," etc. 

Here is the evidence presented in these records of the London sale above cited, 
which declares the fact that the lessees have taken at least 12,000 yearlings, which 
appear as 3 to 5-pound skins in the above itemized classification in a total of 19,461 
skins. I say "at least" 12,000 skins of yearlings. I may say that it is within the line 
of fair statement to claim that this record of the London sale warrants the assertion 
on my part that the lessees have taken 15,000 yearlings out of this sum total sold on 
the 16th of December, 1904, nine-tenths of the balance being ".short 2- year-olds" and 
"long yearlings," or 5^ to 5| pound skins. 

In order that you may the better understand the full significance of this rapid die- 
appearance of this yoimg male life on the seal islands of Alaska, due to excessive 
killing by man, by land and sea butchers, I submit the folloAving table, compiled from 
the records of the annual London sales, where all of the catch of the Pribilof Islands 
has been sold since 1870: 



Class. 



Middlings 

Middlings and smalls . . 

Smalls 

Large pups 

Middling' pups 

Small pups 

Extra small pups 

Extra extra small pups 

Total 



Season 
of 1872. 



SMns. 
34.000 
40,000 
26.000 
None. 
None. 
None. 
None. 
None. 



100,000 



Season 
of 1890. 



Skins. 

159 

500 

2,939 

5, 144 

7,6S4 

3,752 

71 

None. 



20,249 



Season 
of 1904. 



Sicins. 

13 

288 

541 

2,015 

5, 672 

7,218 

3, 530 

107 



19, 284 



These indisputable figures eloquently declare the fact that the very dregs of the 
young male life on the Pribilof seal islands were drained by the lessees in 1903 and 

1904. They declare the fact that there is nothing left alive on the islands up to 
August 1, 1904, of the male life above the "runty" yearlings, or any male life under 
the old bulls, except the young 2-year-old and 3-year-old bulls which were spared 
by the new Hitchcock orders of May 1, 1904. 

They also declare the fact that if the new Hitchcock restrictions are extended so 
as to save in 1905 the 3-year-olds which were spared in 1904, that there is nothing 
left alive on these islands which the lessees can lawfully secure during the season of 

1905, except as they stretch these restrictions, as they did last season, and scrape up 
a few thousand "long" and average yearlings, as "middling pups" and "small pups," 
of these small seals; they may possibly secure some 6,000 or 7,000; no more, that is 
certain. 

Having compelled the saving of a few thousand young males to live and grow to 
the physical standard necessary in fur seals for service on the breeding grounds — 
having done this by the Hitchcock restrictions of 1904 — we have prevented that 
complete extermination of the breeding male life on the rookeries by 1907 which 
otherwise would have taken place. 



28 ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. 

Tliis understood and agreed upon, we come now to face another question, equally 
interesting and equally important, to wit, What effect upon the increase or the dimi- 
nution of the nucleus of that fur-seal herd will this preservation of those young male 
seals have in the future? 

To this question I make answer that while this saving of the choice young bulls 
began in 1904, and annually enforced hereafter, will prevent the complete exter- 
mination of this fur-seal life, yet it can not and will not prevent its annual diminution 
by 1908 down to a number of 25,000 or 30,000 seals of all classes; to-day there are 
about 128,000 seals of all classes, ^ , 9 , and Q. 

It can not be otherwise; it is so because a fleet of 20 or 22 pelagic hunting schooners, 
manned by trained hunters of long experience, are hanging upon the flanks of this 
remnant of our herd to-day. Last season, 1904, these men took 31,000 seals from the 
sum total of the Pribilof herd and sold them all in London— 29,000 on December 16, 
1904, and 2,382 on January 23, 1905 — at an advance of 10 per cent over the high prices 
of 1903, making an enormous profit to the owners of these skins of not less than 120 
per cent. Therefore, these hunters will not quit as a body until the bottom to their 
business suddenly falls out, as it will by 1907 and 1908 under the regulations and con- 
ditions that now prevail. 

Therefore, in answer to this query as to increase or loss of this life, I submit the 
following statement as to the present condition of the Pribilof fur-seal herd, with 
reference to the immediate future : 

Annual Ratio of Diminution which will Ensue from 1904 to 1915 and Indef- 
initely Thereafter under Existing Conditions. 

When the agents of the Government finished their census of the fur-seal herd as it 
existed on the Pribilof Islands during the season of 1904, up to August 1 they reported 
that there were about — 

' ' Cows " or female seals, adult (2 years old down to 12 years old) '. 85, 000 

"Bulls," most of them very old (12 years old down to 18 years old) 2, 000 

"Pups," born June and July (20,000 die from starvation m September and 

October, mothers killed at sea) 80, 000 

Three-year-old or 4-year-old males. (None to mention.) 

Two-year-old males (2,000 of them saved from the club by the Hitchcock 

rules of 1904) 5, 000 

Yearlings (3,000 of them killed November 10, 1904, for natives' food): 

Male 10, 000 

Female 10, 000 

Seals of all classes, ^ 9 190, 000 

But from this total must be subtracted 31,000 seals taken by the pelagic hunters 
and 13,000 yearlings and 2-year-olds, 4^ to 5 pound skins, taken by the lessees dur- 
ing the season of 1904, and 20,000 starved pups, their mothers killed at sea during 
August, September, and October— 62,000 seals. This leaves the sum total of fur 
seals alive at 128,000 of all classes. But this is not the real significance of that dimi- 
nution in number; its significance is due to the fact that three-fourths of the pelagic 
catch of 31,000 seals are adult females, which must be subtracted from the 85,000 
cows, so that less than 63,000 cows were left alive by October 15, 1904. 

Under existing rules and regulations which now govern the business, unless changed, 
the pelagic hunters will secure in the season of 1905 some 25,000 skins and the lessees 
some 8,000 skins. Three-fourths of the pelagic catch will be adult females. That 
requires a subtraction of some 20,000 seals from the 63,000 cows which come over 
from 1904, and about 15,000 pups from the 60,000 born during July, and 8,000 year- 
lings from the 16,000 which come over from the pups of 1904. This would make the 
census for 1905, by October 15, about as follows: 

Cows from 2 years to 11 years old 45, 000 

Bulls from 13 years to 18 years old 1, 500 

Pups 40, 000 

Two-year-olds (2,000 of them saved by the new Hitchcock rules of May 1, 

1904) 2, 500 

Yearlings : 

Males (of these, 2,500 will be killed November 10, 1905, for natives' 

food) 7, 000 

Females 15, 000 



Fur seals of all classes alive in the Pribilof Islands, October 15, 1905. . Ill, 000 



ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES, 29 

With no change in exi.^tinc: rules and regulation-^, the pelagic hunters will secure 
in the season of 1906 some 15,000 seals; the land catch will not exceed 5,000 small 
male seals, of which 2,000 will be sjDared. This would make the census for 1906, by- 
October 15, about as follows: 

Cows from 2 years to 11 years old 28, 000 

Bulls from 14 years to 18 years old 500 

Pups 25, 000 

Two-year-old males (all spared) 1, 000 

Yearlings: 

Males (4,000 killed for natives' food, November 10, 1906) 6, 000 

Females 9, 000 

Fur seals of all classes alive on the Pribilof Islands October 15, 1906. . 69, 500 

With no change in rules, and this same order of work repeated in 1907, the pelagic 
hunters will secure some 12,000 seals and the land catch will not be more than 3,500 
to 4,000 yearling males — just enough for the meat needed for natives' food. This 
would make the census for 1907, by October 15, about as follows: 

Cows from 2 years to 11 years old 18, 000 

Bulls from 6 years to 18 years old (new bulls saved in 1904 now come in) . . . 400 

Pups 16, 000 

Two-year-old males (all spared on land by Hitchcock rule) 1, 000 

Yearlings : 

Males (2,500 of them killed November 10, 1907, for natives' food) 5, 000 

Females 8, 000 



Fur seals of all classes alive in the Pribilof Islands, October 15, 1907. . 48,400 

With no change in rules and this same order of work repeated in 1908, the pelagic 
hunters will secure about 8,000 seals and the land catch will not be more than some 
2,500 to 3,000 yearling males, which will all be killed for natives' food. This will 
make the census for 1908, about October 15, as follows: 

Cows from 2 years to 11 years old 10, 000 

Bulls from 6 years to 18 years old (new bulls saved in 1905 come in) 400 

Pups 9, 000 

Two-year-olds (all spared) 500 

Yearlings : 

Males (3,000 of them killed for natives' food) 4, 000 

Females 6, 000 

Fur seals of all classes alive on the Pribilof Islands October 15, 1908. . . 29, 900 

From 1908 on, if we save all the choice young male seals for breeders and kill nothing 
on the islands practically, then during 1909, 1910, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1914, and 1915 
there will possibly be a variation of as much as 2,500 to 3,000 fewer, and then more 
cows and pups; between 1908 and 1915 there will never be less than 6,000 to 7,000 
cows and 200 to 300 bulls; yet, with the steady following of 5 or 6 pelagic vessels, out 
of the 22 now engaged (in 1904), this life can not be increased, even though it can not 
be much more diminished. 

In conclusion I desire to say that these facts and figures which I have cited above 
can not be successfully questioned by any evidence to the contrary; the deductions 
which I have drawn from these facts and figures I believe to be conservative and 
reasonable. 

When I study those figures purporting to be a complete census of the Pribilof herd 
during the season of 1904, and sent into the Senate of the United States by the custodian 
of that he d, on the 25th ultimo, I am not surprised at them. I believe that they are 
very near right. 

But, Mr. Senator, what a pitiful driblet of life it is when contrasted with what it was 
when I surveyed it in 1872-1874. Then you saw an immense aggregation of over 
4,500,000 fur seals on those Pribilof rookeries and hauling grounds, where the agent 
of our Government last summer saw less than 200,000. 

Is there good reason why this remnant of our herd, as it exists to-day, can not be 
be restored to that fine form and number recorded of it in 1872? Most emphatically 
I say there is none. 

If we \\'ill set aside and ignore the greed of our butchers of this life, and insist that 
the Government of Great Britain do the same to its butchers, and have this herd 
wholly within the keeping of both Governments hereafter, to the exclusion of all 



30 ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. 

private gain from tlu' killing of that lifo on the land and in the >sea, then iti rct-toration 
can be easily and f^urely brought about; otherwise it can never be. 
Very sincerely, yours, 

Henky W. Eluott. 
lion. KxuTE Nelson, 

United States Senate. 

At this point permit me to call the attention of your committee 
to the following significant fact: The first and only oflicial publica- 
tion of the weights of fur sealskins, as taken on the Pribilof Islands, 
from the bodies of seals which are 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 years of age, was 
made in 1881-1884 by the United States Government in Special Bulle- 
tin No. 176, United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries, page 81. 
(See detailed figures in Exhibit — .) 

No man or no ohicial has ever disputed the accuracy of that table 
until in 1907, under date of December 1, an "estimate" table is 
submitted to the department by Special Agent Lembkey, in which 
he attempts to certify a vearling skin into the class and weight of a 
2-year-old. (See p. 84, S"; Doc. No. 376, 60th Cong., 1st sess.) 

This Lembkey table is a falsification of the facts. The oflicial 
table, published in 1881-1884, as above cited, w^as the joint and careful 
work of four United States Treasury agents, viz, Messrs. Bryant, 
Falconer, Lessen, and Elliott; and six of the lessee's agents, viz, 
Messrs. H. H. and H. W. Mclntyre, William Wapus, Daniel Webster, 
G. R. Adams, and T. F. Morgan; and United States Commissioner 
Washburn Maynard, LTnited States Navy. 

This work of establishing that official table of record weights of 
sealskins, as taken by those officials, was made by them and in full 
agreement, on the sealing grounds, during the seasons of 1872-1874. 
It has never been disputed until that attempt made by Lembkey, as 
above noted, in 1907. 

To make this important and vital truth as to what is the real 
weight of a "yearling," a "2-year-old," and all older fur sealskins, 
I submit the following original detailed copy of the table w^hich I 
made on the killing grounds of St. George Island, at the close of our 
official work, July 24, 1873 (on p. 168 of Special BuUetiu No. 176, 
above cited, v/ill be found a table showing the body growth of a fur 
seal from a pup up to old age, annually) : 



ALASKAN SEAL FISHEEIES. 



31 



Items of the weight and length which follow the growth of a male fur seal {Callorhinus 
' ursimis) . 























Length: 




Age. 


Blub- 
ber. 


Flesh. 


Viscera. 


Skin. 


Bones. 


Flip- 
pers. 


Weight 
of whole 

carcass. 


tip of 
nose to 
root of 


Remarks. 






















tail. 






Lbs. Oz. 


Lbs. 


Lbs. Oz. 


Lbs. 


Oz. 


Lbs. 


Oz. 


Lbs. Oz. 


Lbs. 


Inches. 




(months. .. 


U 


10 


7 8 


2 


11 


2 





4 


40-42 


24 


An average of 50 exam- 
ples, taken on St. 
Paul, November, 
1872. 


Yearling.... 


4 


14 


10 


4 


8 


3 





6 


40-^2 


38 


A mean of 6 e.xamples, 
taken on St. George, 
July 14, 1873. 


2-year-old... 


4J-5 


24 


13 


5 


8 


4 


10 


7 


58-59 


46 


A mean of 30 examples. 






















taken on St. George, 






















July 24, 1873. 


3-year-old... 





45 


16 


7 





8 





8 88-90 


52 


A mean of 32 examples. 
























taken on St, George, 
























July 24, 1873. 


4- year-old... 


14 10 


60 


24 


12 





9 


12 


8 8 


128-135 


58 


A mean of 10 examples, 
taken on St. George, 
July 24, 1873. 


5-year-old... 


60 


65 


30 


16 





12 





9 


195-200 


65 


A mean of 5 examples, 
taken on St. George, 






















July 24, 1873. 



Village of St. George, St. George Island, July 24, 1873. 

With the aid of Samuel Falconer, United States Treasury agent, I have been able 
to prepare this table of weights of the several lines of growth and proportions of the 
organs which make up the body of a fur seal; it is the result of careful assortment and 
observation, with this omission: While thecarcasses were cut up and weighed "cold," 
yet a certain amount of blood was lost in getting at the viscera; how much, of course, 
I am imable to say. In .some of the specimens it was considerable, say a quart, others 
less than a pint. 

The skeleton weights I ascertained on St. Paul Island, July, 1872 (the sea fleas 
cleaned the bones for me), and the pups I ascertained also on St. Paul in November, 
1872, while the natives were killing them for food. 

Henry W. Elliott. 

In the foregoing clear and indisputable showing of the officially 
published weights of "green" 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 year old seal skins, 
when fresh taken on the Seal Islands of iVlaska, your committee 
observes that any skin that weighs less than 5^ pounds when so taken 
is a skm that must be taken from a seal "under two years of age," 
and when so taken is in violation of the rules of the Department of 
Commerce and Labor. 

I propose, for brevity and effect, to waive all mention at this point 
of the illegal killing of tens of thousands of yearling seals on the 
Pribilof Islands, by and with the sanction of the Government agents 
stationed thereon, sworn to prevent it, as it has been done from May 
1, 1904, down to the expiration of this fur-seal lease. May 1, 1910. 
To quickly and surely fasten the charge of malfeasance on that official- 
ism for that offense during the period just named, I will take the 
record of Mr. Nagel's men, as made b}" them last summer, when they 
killed 12,920 seals on the Pribilof Islands, and then falsely certified 
that killing to the Government, as made in strict obedience to the 
order of the Hitchcock rules of May 1, 1904. 

On the 4th of February, 1911, Special Agent Lembkey, introduced 
by Charles Xagel, appeared before the United States Senate Com- 
mittee on Conservation of National Resources (Senator Joseph M. 
Dixon, chairman) . In answer to the direct question of how many seal- 
skins he had taken on the islands durins: the season of 1910 and under 



32 ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. 

the rules of the department, lie said he had killed 12,920 scials. He 
then was asked if he had killed aii}'' under 2 j^ears of age in that 
killing aforesaid. He replied that he had not. He then iniformed the 
committee that they had been sold in London, on December 17 last, 
and that they had sold at public auction, under the eyes of the agents 
of the tlepartment, etc. (See testimony before U. S. Senate Com- 
mittee on Conservation of National iiesourees, Feb. 4, 1911.) 

Now, gentlemen, what do the official records of that sale of 12,920 
skins, as classified for sizes and values, tleclare ? They actually 
declare the fact that Special Agent Lembkey killed at least 8,000 
yearling seals and certified them as seals "not under 2 years of 
age," to the committee, as above cited. 

On pages 61-62 of the New York Fur Trade Review of February 
1, 1911, is a detailed transcript of the expert classification (officially 
returned to the Department of Commerce and Labor) matle of this 
catch of 12,920 skins taken on the Pribilof Islands in June and July, 
1910, by order of Charles Nagel, Secretary of Commerce and Labor, 
and sold in London December 17, 1910, under the personal charge 
of George M. Bowers, United States Fish Commissioner, etc. 

This classification was made by the same experts that have assorted 
and classified ah of the sealskins taken on the Pribilof Islands and 
sold in London annually since 1872-1874. It is absolutely authentic 
and indisputable. It is summed up as fohows, for brevity (the full 
details have appeared and are in the printed sales catalogue of Messrs. 
C. M. Lampson's Sons for December 17, 1910), to wit: 

78 "smalls," or 3-year-old seals, 7^ to 8 pound skins. 
793 "large pups," or "short" 3-year-olds, and "long" 4-year-olds, 6| to 7 pound 
skins. 
3, 775 "middling pups," or "short" 2-year-olds, and "long" yearlings, 5i to 6 pound 

skins. 
6, 195 "small pups" or yearlings, 4^ to 5 pound skins. 
1, 809 "ex. sm. pups," or "short yearlings, 3J to 4 pound skins. 
270 (not well classified). 



12, 920 skins. 

Out of wdiich, 8,000 are indisputably the skins of seals taken 
"under 2 years of age," and so taken in flagrant violation of the 
law and rules of the department as pledged to the Ways and Means 
Committee March 10, 1904, and ordered by the department May 1, 
1904. 

In this proof of that malfeasance, I submit that the committee on 
the conduct of affairs in the Department of Commerce and Labor, 
has a plain duty to perform. 

I also submit a series of further and important detailed proof in 
the form of exhibits. 

As to charge II. — I beg to submit the following: 

The causes which have resulted in the loss of more than 4,500,000 
fur seals, the property of the Government on the seal islands of 
Alaska, since 1882-1884, are due to the following agencies, to wit: 

First. The greed and power in official circles of our Governnient of 
private interests — the lessees of the seal islands. (See Exhibits — .) 

Second. The ignorance, or worse, of our officialism in charge of that 
herd on the seal islands of Alaska. (See Exhibits — .) 

On the 19th of November, 1874, there were 4,700,000 fur seals alive 
on the seal islands of Alaska. (See the official record of it, published 



ALASKAN SEAL FISHEEIES, 33 

by the U. S. Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, Special Bulletin 176, 
1883.) 

On the 4th of 5'ebruary, 1911, Special Agent Lembkey, in charge of 
the seal islands of Alaska, in answer to the direct question put to him 
of, "Do you know how many seals are now alive on the seal islands ?" 
said, "I do not." ''Are there 50,000 V he was then asked; he again 
said that he did not know. 

(See testimony taken before U. S. Senate Committee on Conserva- 
tion of National Resources, at hearing held in Senate Office Building, 
Washington, D. C, Saturday, Feb. 4, 1911.) 

Here is, as above cited, the indisputable and official proof of the 
fact that our fur seal herd has been depleted since 1883, down to date, 
of more than 4,500,000 seals. That to-day a pitiful remnant of some 
50,000 is all that survives of that vast herd of 1872-83. 

Think, also, gentlemen, for a moment, of the property loss to the 
Public Treasur}^ of 4,500,000 fur seals — at the least, a loss of more than 
$100,000,000, for which we have nothing to show on the credit side 
of our books; we have received since 1870, up to date, some $10,000,000 
gross revenue, but our expenses in that period have been nearly as 
much to defend and protect tliis private interest which has given us 
that revenue, and wdiich has prevented any settlement of this question 
of suppressing the pelagic seal hunter's ruinous and cruel industry 
ever since 1890 up to date of May 1, 1910. 

In submitting these detailed exhibits as above noted, in proof of 

this malfeasance on the part of the officialism concerned, I have to say 

in conclusion that abundant and overwdielming additional proof is 

in my possession and at your command for your information and use. 

I am, very truly, yours, 

Henry H. Elliott. 

Washington, D. C, May 15,1911. 

95100— No. 1—11 3 



Exhibits Showing the Violation of the Law and Regulations ordered by the 
Government for the Killing of Fur Seals on the Seal Islands of Alaska. 

Exhibit A. — The "Hitchcock Rules," ordered by the Secretary of Commerce and 
Labor, May 1, 1904: "No seals under 2 years of age" can be lawfully 
killed for their skins. 
B. — The official tables, showing the weights of skins of fur seals when taken 
from the bodies of fur seals 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 years old on the Seal 
Islands; these tables published officially, 1881-1884, by the United 
States Fish Commission, and the Tenth Census United States of 
America. 
C. — The official record of the sale of 5,000 skins in London, December 16, 
1904, which were taken on the Pribilof Islands during June and July, 

1904, and of which 2,037 are the skins of yearlings and taken in open 
violation of the Hitchcock rules of May 1, 1904, and falsely certified 
by the department agents in charge as skins of 2-year-old seals." 

D. — The official record of the sale of 14,674 skins in London, December 15, 

1905, which were taken on the Pribilof Islands during June and July, 

1905, and of which 6,918 are the skins of yearlings, and taken in open 
violation of the Hitchcock rules of May 1, 1904, and again falsely 
certified to the department as "not under 2 years of age" skins by 
its own sworn agents. in charge of this work. 

E. — The official record of the sale of 14,446 skins in London December 14, 

1906, which were taken on the Pribilof Islands, during June and July, 
1906, and of which 6,837 are the skins of yearling fur seals, and 
taken in open \'iolation of the Hitchcock rules of May ], 1904; and 
again falsely certified to the department, as the skins of seals "not 
under 2 years of age," by the sworn agents of the department in charge 
of the seal islands. 

F. — The official record of the sale of 12,920 fur-seal skins in London Decem- 
ber 17, 1910, which were taken on the Pribilof Islands during June 
and July, 1910, out of which 8,000 skins are the skins of yearling fur 
seals, and all taken in deliberate and gross violation of the Hitchcock 
rules of May 1, 1904; and again are falsely certified to the depart- 
ment as skins "not under 2 years of age," by United States Fish 
Commissioner Bowers and his subordinate agents on the seal islands. 

G. — Letters fully advising the Secretary of Commerce and Labor of the fraud- 
ulent killing of seals on the Pribilof Islands done by his agents in 
violation of law, and to all of which no response has ever been made, 
viz: From December 19, 1906, up to date of May 27, 1910, inclusive. 

H.- — Letter advising the President of the United States of fraudulent killing 
of fur seals on the Pribilof Islands, and inclosing a review of the salient 
errors of the Sims report, dated December 9, 1906. 
I. — Proof of fraud and perjury uttered by lessees of seal islands to gain their 
lease, as submitted to the President, July 12, 1909, and referred by him 
to Department of Commerce and Labor, July 29, 1909. 

Washington, D. C, Mai/ IS, 1911. 
These exhibits, as noted above, are respectfully submitted to Hon. Jacob Rothermel, 
chairman Committee on Expenditures in the Department of Commerce and Labor, 
for the information and use of said committee by 

Henry W. Elliott. 
34 



EXHIBIT A. 

[Senate Document No. 114, Fifty-eighth Congress, Third session.] 

Department of Commerce and Labor, 

Office of the Secretary, 
Washington, January 24, 1905. 
Sir: In compliance with the terms of a resolution adopted in the Senate of the 
"United States, under date of January 23, 1905, directing the Secretary of Commerce 
and Labor "to furnish, for the information of the Senate, copies of all regulations and 
instructions given by him to the agents of the department in charge of affairs on the 
seal islands of Alaska, and copies of all the reports to the said department which said 
agents have made during the season of 1904, relative to the condition and management 
of the fur-seal herd of Alaska," I have the honor to transmit herewith copies of the 
letters of instructions issued by the department on May 1, 1904, for the guidance of 
the agent in charge of the seal islands of Alaska, and also a copy of a preliminary 
rejjort that was addressed to the department on August 12, 1904, by the agent in 
charge, relative to the conduct of affairs on the islands during the year 1904. 

Up to the present time the final detailed report of the agent for the year mentioned 
has not been received . 
Respectfully, 

W. H. Metcalf, Secretary. 
The President of the Senate. 



Department of Commerce and Labor, 

Office op the Chief Clerk, 

Washington, May 12, 1904. 
Dear Sir: I inclose herewith department letter of May 1, 1904, embodying your 
instructions for the coming season as agent in charge of the seal islands. 

Three copies of the letter of instructions are also inclosed, one of which you will 
please deliver to each of the assistant agents at the islands. 

By to-day's mail I shall forward a copy of the letter of instructions to the North 
American Commercial Co., Mills Building, San Francisco, Cal. 
Very truly, yours, 

F. H. Hitchcock, Chief Clerk. 
Mr. W. I. Lembkey, 

Agent in Charge of Seal Islands, 

Department of Commerce and Labor. 



May 1, 1904. 

Sir: You are directed to proceed, as soon as practicable, to the seal islands, Alaska, 
and resume charge of the interests of the Government thereon. Assistant Agent James 
Judge, who is now at his home in Columbus, Ohio, will be instructed to accompany 
you, and both of you should take passage to the islands on the steamer of the North 
American Commercial Co. leaving San Francisco on or about the 21st instant. 

You will make such assignment of the assistant agents during the coming sealing 
season as in your opinion will subserve the best interests of the service and the wel- 
fare of the native inhabitants, notifying the department of your action in this regard. 

At the close of the sealing season, Assistant Agents Ezra W. Clark and H. D. Chi- 
chester are to return to their respective homes, unless in your opinion the exigencies 
of the service require either or both of them to remain on the islands during the coming 
winter, in which event you will instruct them accordingly. 

Inclosed herewith are copies of the contract between the United States and the 
North American Commercial Co., and it will be your duty and that of your assistants 

35 



36 ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. 

to see that its provisions are enforced and that the rights of the Government and 
those of the lessees are duly protected. 

Should a difference of opinion arise at any time between yourself and the repre- 
sentatives of the comi)any in respect to a matter of administratif)n on the islands, 
your decision must govern, but in all such cases you should reciuest the superintendent 
of the company to furnish a written statement of his views on the question involved, 
and this statement should be transmitted to the department, with an expression of 
your own views, at the earliest practicable moment. 

Quota. — If the conditions of the herd will permit, the lessees may be allowed to 
take during the season of 1904 as many as 13,000 male seals of the proper age on the 
island of St. Paul, and as many as 2,000 on the island of St. George, but not more 
than the number specified in either case. The num])ers to which the quotas of the 
two islands are thus limited shall be inclusive of any skins accepted by the company 
from food drives made prior to the present sealing season. No seals shall be taken 
that are over 4 years of age, nor shall any seals be taken that are under 2 years of age.' 

In order to remove all doubt as to the reservation of a sufficient number of male 
seals for the perpetuation of the herd, you are instructed to release from the best 
seals appearing in the first drives of the season not less than 1,000 3-year-old males 
and not less than 1,000 2-year-old males. Of the 3-year-olds and the 2-year-olds to 
be reserved, 800 of each shall be released on the island of St. Paul and 200 of each on 
the island of St. George. The seals thus released are to be marked in such a manner 
as will make them readily recognizable throughout the season, and under no circum- 
stances are they to be taken by the lessees.' 

Killing season. — The killing season should begin as soon after the 1st of June as the 
rookeries are in condition for driving. Seals shall not be killed by the lessees later 
than July 31. No seals whatever shall be taken during the stagey season. The killing 
of pups for food for the natives, or for any other purpose, is not to be permitted. 

Seals for food. — The number of seals to' be killed by the natives for food during the 

• fiscal year beginning July 1, 1904, shall not exceed 1,700 on the island of St. Paul and 

300 on the island of St. George, and no seals shall be taken for this purpose that are 

over 4 years of age or under 2 years of age, nor any of the 3-year-olds or 2-year-old8 

reserved during the lessees' killing season under the instructions given above. 

Driving. — The representatives of the company on the islands shall be required to 
give notice on the day preceding that on which they desire to make a drive of the seals, 
stating the name of the rookery selected, such notice to be subject to your approval. 
A representative of the Government should be present on the killing grounds m each 
instance to superintend the killing. If at any time the methods employed in driving 
or killing appear in your judgment to be faulty or detrimental to the seal herd, you 
should see that such methods are immediately corrected, indicating to the represen- 
tatives of the company what changes are to be made. 

Killing grounds. — As heretofore, you should establish on each of the islands killing 
grounds that can be reached by the shortest possible driver; provided, however, 
that such killing grounds must be at places sufl[iciently distant from the rookeries 
to prevent annoyance from the decaying carcasses. 

Acceptance of skins.— In an opinion dated March 8, 1902, it was held by the Solicitor 
of the Treasury that the lessees have no right to reject any of the skins taken from the 
seals they have selected for killing. You will therefore see that all such skins, regard- 
less of condition, are accepted. 

Counting skins. — All the sealskins should be carefully counted in the salt houses 
in the presence of the department agent and of the representative of the company, and 
a receipt, in duplicate, in the following form should be prepared and signed by said 
agent and by the representative of the company: 

St. Island, , — , 190 — . 

We certify that there have been placed in the salt house in our presence 

sealskins. 

Agent, United States Department of Commerce and Labor. 



Agent, North American Commercial Co. 

The original of the above receipt should be retained by the department agent, 
and the duplicate given to the representative of the North American Commercial Co. 

At the close of the season, when the sealskins are again counted and shipped on 
board the company's steamer, the usual annual receipts should be signed by the 
captain of the steamer and the representative of the department. 

> That order has been violated from start to finish— tens of thousands of times. The London sales 
clinch the proof of that guilt. 



ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. 37 

Trading in skins. — The North American Commercial Co. has the exclusive privi- 
lege under its contracts of takintf sealskins and fox skins on the islands of St. Paul 
and St. George, and you should see that no other comi^any or person is allowed to 
trade with the natives for such skins. 

Measures to prevent shipment of skins hy natives. — To avoid the possibility of seal- 
skins or fox skins being surreptitiously shipped from the islands, you are directed to 
continue the practice of examining all goods to be shipped by the natives, including 
baggage and personal effects, and where barrels, casks, boxes, or other receptacles 
are tised they should be closed under your super\asion, after an examination of their 
contents, before being placed in the warehouse. No person shall be admitted to the 
space reserved for such merchandise in the warehouse without your consent. Any 
skins found concealed in packages to be shipped by the natives should be seized 
and held, subject to instructions from the department. 

Census of seal herd. — You are expected to make a thorough examination into the 
condition of the seal herd during the coming season, and to make a careful count of 
the number of breeding seals, male and female, on the islands, and also a computation, 
as accurate as possible, of the nimiber of seals not breeding, including idle bulls, half 
bulls, bachelors, and virgin females. A careful enumeration should also be made of 
the pups found dead at the close of the season, and such information as can be had 
regarding the causes of death reported. 

Sealskins to be weighed. — You are instructed to have the skins of the seals taken by 
the lessees during the coming season carefully weighed, and to keep a record of the 
weights for the information of the department. You should also weigh the skins of 
seals that are killed to supply food for the natives and record the weights. The 
natives may be required to assist as far as practicable in the work of weighing. 

Taking of foxes to be restricted. — Proper restrictions should be placed upon the taking 
of foxes during the coming season. You are directed to see that the number killed is 
not in excess of the yearly increase in these animals. If there seems to be danger of 
extermination on either of the islands, all killing on that island should be stopped. 

Killing of sea lions to be limited. — The preservation of the sea lion rookeries on the 
islands is highly important. The killing of these animals should be limited to such 
number as is absolutely necessary in providing for the construction of "bidaras," or 
skin boats. Sea lion pups should not be killed for any purpose. 

Care of the natives. — The care and welfare of the natives should receive your close 
attention, and you are directed to see that the lessees perform all of the obligations of 
their contract toward such natives. You should ascertain the prices charged at the 
company's stores, compare them with the prices at San Francisco, and report any 
instances where the natives are compelled to pay unfair prices. You should also 
inspect the articles supplied as to quality and quantity, and if they are in any manner 
deficient you should report the fact to the department. 

Compensation to natives for taking sealskins. — The compensation to be paid by the 
company for killing, salting, curing, bundling, and loading the sealskins on the com- 
pany's steamer will be 50 cents for each skin. The money thus earned is to consti- 
tute a community fund for distribution among the natives, according to their respec- 
tive classes. At the close of the sealing season, after a conference with the native 
chiefs, you will make such division of the fund among the natives, according to their 
classification, as is deemed fair and just, and submit a report of such di\'ision, showing 
the amount apportioned to each native participating in the fund, which report should 
be accompanied by an indorsement from the native chiefs and the company's agent 
certifying that such funds have been credited to such natives on the books of the 
company . 

Returns to natives under fox contract. — Under the contract executed between the 
Secretary of the Treasury and the North American Commercial Co. on May 2, 1900, 
this company named was granted the right to propagate the fur-bearing animal known 
as the blue fox, on the islands of St. Paul- and St. George, for a term of five years, the 
company to pay S5 for every blue fox skin and ?! for every white fox skin obtained, 
these payments to be entered as a credit on the books of the company in favor of the 
natives, and to be available for their support, on orders drawn in their favor by the 
Government agents. 

The amounts accruing to the natives under this contract are to be added to and form 
a part of the community fund, and are in the same manner to be credited to the natives 
on the books of the company. 

Payment of natives' earnings. — The amounts that are earned from the company by the 
natives for labor, other than sealing and foxing, are to be paid to them in cash, and you 
will instruct the representatives of the company accordingly. The funds earned from 
sealing and foxing, however, are to be disbursed upon order as heretofore. 

The payment to the natives of money from the appropriation for their maintenance, 
upon the orders of the Government agent, is strictly prohibited. 



38 ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. 

Articles that do not properly come within the term "necessaries" should not be 
exposed for sale in the company's stores nor sold to the natives for the money they earn 
by labor. 

Support of naiircs. — Congress has ajjpropriated the sum of $19,500 "to enable the 
Secretary of Commerce and Labor to furnish food, fuel, and clothing to the native 
inhabitants on the islands of St. Paul and St. George, Alaska," during the fiscal year 
ending June 30, 1905, and the greatest care and economy should be exercised in the 
expenditure of this appropriation. Articles of strict necessity only should be issued. 
No expensive dress goods, boots, or other articles are to be provided. The natives 
should be restricted to one pair of dress shoes each year and the women to one good 
dress. Ginghams, calicoes, muslins, and similar inexpensive dress goods may be 
issued in reasonable quantities. 

The supply of fuel for the use of the natives is paid for from this appropriation, and 
the cost of such fuel should not be overlooked in determining how much of the appro- 
priation is available for other purposes. 

In the distribution of these supplies no distinction is to be made between persons 
without means and those having small savings from previous years, but the earnings 
for the current year should be expended for necessaries, other than "food, fuel, and 
clothing," before any allowance is granted from the appropriation. 

You will continue the plan, adopted under previous instruction, of issuing orders 
upon the company for such supplies as are requii-ed by the native inhabitants after 
they have expended their current yearly earnings. At the end of the season, as 
heretofore, you will submit to the department the stubs of the orders given for use in 
verifying the accounts of the company. 

Coal supply. — In a letter to the department, dated April 16, 1904, the North Ameri- 
can Commercial Co. has agi-eed to furnish dm-ing the coming season 175 tons of coal 
for use on the islands at |20 per ton, including delivery on the beach, 90 tons to be 
delivered on St. Paul Island and 85 tons on St. George Island. This coal, with the 
80 tons additional the company is required to furnish under the terms of its contract, 
will make available for all purposes a supply of 255 tons, and in its distribution the 
widows and orphans and aged and infirm inhabitants of the islands of St. Paul and 
St. George are to be included. 

Of the 175 tons purchased from the company, you may make the following distri- 
bution: 

St. Paul Island: Tons. 

For the Government house 10 

For the use of the natives 80 

St. George Island: 

For the Government house • 10 

For the use of the natives 75 

Total 175 

Of the 80 tons furnished by the company without charge under its contract, 50 tons 
may be distributed to the natives of St. Paul and 30 tons to the natives of St. George. 

Dwellings for natives. — The agreement of the company in its contract to furnish the 
native inhabitants of the islands a sufficient number of comfortable dwellings and to 
keep such dwellings in proper repair should be strictly enforced. You are instructed 
to obtain from the representatives of the company, as soon after the close of the cm-rent 
fiscal year as practicable, a statement of the amount expended during the year in 
carrying out this requirement of the contract. 

Schools for the natives. — You will require the schools for the native children to be 
maintained frt)m Sejjtember 1 to May 1 and to be opened five days in each week, 
the school hours to be from 9 o'clock a. m. to 3 o'clock p. m., with 1 hour recess at 
noon and 15 minutes' recess in the forenoon. 

It will be your duty to see that the teachers appointed by the company are competent 
to teach the English language and that they faithfully perform this duty. None 
but the English language shall be taught in these schools. 

If the parents of the children on the islands desire to send them to the Jessie Lee 
School at Unalaska, the department has no objection, provided no expenditure of 
public money is involved in their transportation to Unalaska or their maintenance 
and schooling while there. This course will also be permitted, under the same condi- 
tions, in the case of orphan children for whom provision is now made by the company 
under its contract. 

The amount expended by the company during the fiscal year for the maintenance 
of schools, in accordance wnth the requirements of its contract, should be ascertained 
and reported to the department. 



ALASKAN SEAL FISHEEIES. 39 

House of worship and medical attendance. — You will also ascertain the company's 
expenditures during the year in maintaining a suitable house for religious worship 
and in providing competent physicians and necessary medicines and medical supplies. 

Widows, orphans, aged, and infirm. — The company is required by its contract to 
provide the necessaries of life for the widows and orphans and aged and infirm inhabi- 
tants of the islands who are unable to provide for themselves, and you will see that this 
obligation is fully discharged. As soon as practicable after the close of the current 
fiscal year you will procure from the representatives of the company a statement 
showing the numl^er of such inhabitants pro\-ided for during the year, and also the 
amount expended in making such provision. 

Widows and orphans having small sums of money to their credit should not be 
compelled to spend them and become wholly dependent before they are allowed to 
draw supplies under this provision in the company's contract. Such sums, as well as 
similar accounts held by other natives, may be drawn upon from time to time, however, 
with the consent and under the direction of the Government agent, for such reasonable 
articles as will contribute to the comfort of the persons supplying the funds. 

Natives to render service. — In consideration of the support gratuitously afforded the 
natives by the Government, you are directed to utilize their services, when not re- 
quired by the company, in repairing roads, guarding their rookeries, and performing 
such other duties as seem desirable. This instruction is not to be regarded, however, 
as relieving the company from its obligation to employ the natives, at a fair and just 
compensation, for all such work as they are fitted to perform. 

Election of native chiefs. — No interference should be permitted in the selection of 
their chiefs by the native inhabitants of the islands. If it should transpire, however, 
that persons manifestly unsuitable for the position are chosen, it Airill be your duty to 
interpose in the interest of good government, and require the selection of proper per- 
sons, but such action should be taken only in extreme cases. 

Sale of intoxicants prohibited. — The company agrees in its contract that it will not 
permit any of its agents to keep, sell, give, or dispose of any distilled spirits or spirit- 
uous liquors or opium on either of the islands or the waters adjacent thereto to any of 
the native inhabitants, such person not being a physician and furnishing the same for 
use as a medicine. This obligation is to be rigidly enforced. 

Manufacture of intoxicants prohibited. — The brewing or distilling of intoxicating 
beverages on the island is prohibited. In the enforcement of this provision you are 
authorized to discontinue the sale, from the company's stores, of sugar, or of other 
articles entering into the manufacture of intoxicants, to any person who \dolates this 
order, or who is found to be intoxicated . Should intoxication become so general among 
the people as to interfere with good government and jeopardize the peace, you are 
authorized to discontinue altogether the sale of sugar, and of other articles entering into 
the manufacture of intoxicants, for such length of time as may appear wise. 

Removal for cause. — Should natives or other persons become so unruly or immoral 
in conduct as to endanger the peace and good government of the people, they should 
be removed from the islands, and the Revenue-Cutter Service will be instructed to 
render such assistance as may be necessary for that purpose. 

Landing on the islands restricted. — No persons other than Government officers, repre- 
sentatives and employees of the North American Commercial Co., and duly accredited 
representatives of the Russian Church shall be allowed to land on the islands except 
by written authority from the department. The permission granted representatives 
of the Russian Church to visit the islands may be suspended, however, where its 
exercise is attempted by an improper person. Visitors to the islands should not be 
permitted to inspect the rookeries, except under your supervision. 

Information regarding' affairs on the islands. — No information regarding the seals or as 
to any other matter pertaining to the seal islands is to be given out by you or by any of 
the assistant agents. All applications for such information should be referrd to the 
department. 

Conclusion. — Should questions arise involving matters not covered by these instruc- 
tions, it will be your duty to report the facts to the department and to await instructions 
except in cases requiring immediate decision, when you will take such action as sound 
judgment directs. 

A copy of these instructions should be furnished by you to each of the assistant agents 
on the seal islands for their information and guidance. 

Respectfully, " Geo. B. Cortelyou, 

Secretary. 

Mr. W. I. Lembkey, 

Agent in Charge of Seal Islands, Department of Commerce and Labor. 



40 ALASKA!?- SEAL FISHERIES. 

Department of Commerce and Labor, 

Office of the Chief Clerk, 

Washington, May 12, 1904. 
Dear Sir: With reference to the pro\nsion in your instructions prohibiting the 
lessees from killing any seals during the coming season that are under 2 years of age, 
you are directed in the enforcement of this requirement to fix upon 5A pounds as a 
minimum limit of weight for the skins to be taken. 

It will be your duty to see that every possible ])recaution is exercised to prevent 
the killing of seals that jdeld skins under the weight mentioned. 
Very truly, yours, 

F. H. Hitchcock, Chief Clerk. 
Mr. W. I. Lembkey, 

Agent in charge of Seal Islayids, 

Department of Commerce and Labor. 



Department of Commerce and Labor, 

Office of the Chief Clerk, 

Washington, May 14, 1904. 
Dear Sir: I desire to remind you of the wish of the department to have a record 
kept for the coming season of the number of sealskins taken on the islands, as distinct 
from the number of skins shipped. You may please have separate records made for 
each island of the number of skins taken from seals killed by the lessees during the 
season and also of the skins taken from seals killed in food drives. 

The importance of securing fuller statistics regarding the seals on the island of St. 
George has been already impressed upon you. The assistant agents on that island 
phould be required to exert every possible effort during the coming season to make 
their counts of the seals as accurate and complete as the conditions \vill permit. The 
number of idle bulls on the islands should be counted, as well as the bulls ha\dng 
harems, and as accurate returns as possible should be made as to the number of breed- 
ing cows, and also as to the number of immature seals, including half-bulls, bachelors, 
and virgin cows. 

For the proper enforcement of the regulation prohibiting the killing of seals during 
the coming season that are under 2 years of age it is desirable that the work of weighing 
ekins called for by your instructions be done with great thoroughness and care, one 
ef the objects of such weighing being to see that no skins are taken that weigh less than 
5^ pounds, which is the minimum limit to be fixed upon in the enforcement of the 
regulations. Your assistants on St. George should be advised as to the importance 
of this work and directed to comply strictly with the instructions. You will please 
see that at least two of the six weighing instruments with which you have been 
provided are placed in the hands of your assistants on St. George. 
Very truly, yours, 

F. H. Hitchcock, Chief Clerk. 
Mr. W. I. Lembkey, 

Agent in Charge of Seal Islands, 

Department of Commerce a7id Labor. 



Department of Commerce and Labor, 

Office of the Chief Clerk, 

Washington, May 14, 1904. 
Dear Sir: Pending the arrival on the islands of the clipping apparatus that is to 
he provided for experiment in marking the 2-year-old and 3-year-old seals to be 
reserved from the killing, it is expected that you will employ the method agreed upon 
of singeing out a spot in the fur on the top of the seal's head with the branding irons. 
In marking the fur by this method care should be taken not to burn into the skin of 
the animal. 

Upon the receipt of the clipping apparatus you will please give it a sufficient test 
to determine its practicability, and if it proves to be successful it should be substi- 
tuted for the branding irons. 
Very truly, vours, 

F. H. Hitchcock, C/iie/CZert. 

Mr. W. I. Lembkey, 

Agent in Charge of Seal Islands, 

Department of Commerce and Labor. 



ALASKAN SEAL FISHEEIES. 



41 



Office of Agent in Charge Seal Fisheries, 

St. Paul Island, Alaska, August 12, 1904. 
Dear Sir: I have to make the following summarized report of the condition of 
affairs on the seal inlands of Alaska during the sealing season ended July 31, 1904: 

The following number of seals was killed during the season by the lessee on its 
quota : 

St. Paul 8, 732 

St. George 1, 500 

Total 10, 232 

The following number of seals was killed for food before and after the regular seal- 
ing season or left on hand from previous seasons :^ 

St. Paul 2, 545 

St. George 496 

Total 3, 041 

The figures for St. Paul include 140 skins taken for food on August 9, 1904. 
The following shipment of skins will be made by the company this fall: 

St. Paul 11, 132 

St. George 1, 996 

Total 13, 128 

The lessee's quota of 15,000 skins was not filled for the reason that a sufficient 
number of seals of proper size was not present. 

The following number of bachelors was branded this spring: 



Islands. 

■ 


2-year 
olds. 


3-year 
olds. 


4-year 
olds. 


St. Paul 


800 
200 


800 
200 


50 


St. George 










Total 


1,000 


1,000 


50 







Branding was completed on St. Paul on June 25, and on St. George July 2. 
The number of breeding bulls, with harems and idle bulls, found this summer 
on both islands was as follows : 



Islands. 


Harems. 


Idle. 


Total. 


St. Paul 


1,790 
■312 


232 

62 


2,022 


St. George - - 


374 








Total 


2,102 


294 


2,396 







The counts of pups on both islands at the end of the season of 1904, with a com- 
parison of the counts for the season of 1903, follow: 



Islands. 


1904 


1903 


Decrease. 


St. Paul 


21,309 
13,583 


24,801 
14,647 


3,492 


St. George 


1,064 







42 



ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. 



The census of breeding cows and of bulls breeding and idle on the two islands for 
the seasons of 1903 and 1904, follows: 





Islands. 


Bulls. 


* Cows. 




1903 


1904 


Decrease. 


1903 


1904 


Decrease. 


St. Paul 


2,402 
1415 


2,022 
374 


382 
41 


82,&49 
14,647 


74,002 
13,583 


8, (i47 


St. George - 


1,064 








Total.. 




2,396 


423 


97,296 


87,585 


9,711 









I Estimated. 



The average harem daring the past season (1904) was 39.83, as compared with 
40.29 during the season of 1903. The lessening of the average harem is caused by 
the fact that the decrease in Ijreeding cows during the interval between the seasons 
of 1903 and 1904 was greater than the decrease in bulls. On the area on which pups 
were counted on St. Paul Island the decrease in harems was found to be 13.99 per 
cent, while the decrease in pups or l)reeding cows was 14.90 per cent. 

During the season of 1904 there occurred in the various drives of the season, and 
including the food drive on the 9th of August, 641 large rejections, 4,794 small rejec- 
tions, and 1,888 rejections of branded seals. During the same period in 1903 the 
rejections were as follows: 912 large and 1,185 small. The increase in rejections 
from drives in 1904 was the result of the regulations restricting the killing to a mini- 
mum of 54 pounds. 

All skins taken on St. George during the sealing season, as reported by Agent Clark, 
were weighed. On St. Paul all but 145 skins taken during the sealing season were 
weighed, the latter number being overlooked by the natives who gathered up the 
skins on the field for weighing. The bulk of the company's catch is skins of 2-year- 
olds, but a fair number of 3-year-olds also were taken. No yearlings were included 
in the catch, and but few were seen in the drives. 

One yearling was killed by me during the summer to determine the weight of 
that class of skins. The entire animal — a female — weighed 33 pounds, and its pelt 
weighed 3| pounds. 

A detailed report of the season's work will be made as soon as practicable after the 
departure of the company's vessel. 

Very truly, yours, W. I. Lembkey, 

Agent in Charge Seal Fisheries. 

Mr. F. H. Hitchcock, 

Chief Clerk Department of Commerce and Labor. 



EXHIBIT B. 

Being the official tables fixing the record weights of skins of fur-seals as they are taken 
from the bodies of 1, 2, 3, 4," and 5 year old fur seals on the Seal Islands of Alaska^ 
officially prepared and adopted and published by the United States Government 
in 1881-82. 

These official tables have never been disputed by any competent gfficialisiji since 
they were published by order of the Secretary of the Treasury, in 1881-82, up to date. 

ANNUAL GROWTH OF AN AVERAGE FUR SEAL (CALLORHINUS URSINUS) SKIN — AS BORN 
AND BRED ON THE SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 

The "pups" are all born annually, between June 6 and July 25; an immense 
majority of them being born between July 10 and 20. 

Newborn and still "womb moist" pups weigh 7^ to 9 pounds then. When they 
are weaned, in November, and about to leave the islands for their winter migration 
in the North Pacific, and are 4^ to 5 months old, they weigh from 39 to 40 pounds 
each. 

Between the 20th and 26th November, 1872, 10,550 pups were driven and 
"handled" for "natives' food" on the village killing grounds at St. Paul's Island. 
Out of this number so "handled" for sex selection, 5,976 were males, and were killed. 

Five hundred carcasses, taken "as they ran," were weighed on this slaughter field, 
and declared an average of 39 to 40 pounds per carcass; some "runt" pups ran as low 
as 32 pounds; some well-grown ones went up to 46 poimds. One hundred pups' 
skins taken from this killing, "as they ran," piled on a platform scale weighed 316 
pounds, "clean skinned," thus showing an average weight of little more than 3 
pounds; with the usual amount of blubber adherents left on them for salt ciuring 
they would weigh one-half to three-fourths of a pound each more per skin. 

The following table of skin weights was the agreement made in 1874 by the Govern- 
ment agents and the lessees' agents as their standard for official and business reports. 
It was officially published by the United States Fish Commission as Special Bulletin 
No. 176, and by the Tenth Census, United States of America, in 1881, under the 
direction of Prof. S. F. Baird, United States Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, and 
on page 81 it appears as follows: 

"Gradation of the fur of Callorhinus ursinus. — The gradation of the fur of 
Callorhinus may, perhaps, be best presented in the following manner: 

"One year old ^ , well grown, at July 1 of every season: Fur fully developed as to 
uniform length and thickness and evenness of distribution; it is lighter in color and 
softer in texture than hereafter during the life of the animal; average weight of skin as 
removed by the sealers from the carcass, 4^ pounds. 

"Two year old ^ , well grown, at June 1 of every season: Fur fully developed as to 
even length and thickness and uniformity of distribution; it has now attained the 
darker buff and fawn color, sometimes almost brown, which it retains throughout the 
rest of the life of the animal; it is slightly and perceptibly firmer and stiffer than it was 
last year, not being at all 'fluffy,' as in the yearling dress now; average weight of skin 
as taken from the body, 5i pounds. 

"Three year old ^ , well grown, at June 1 of every season: Fur fully developed as to 
even length, but a shade longer over the shoulders, where the incipient 'wig' is forming; 
otherwise perfectly uniform in thickness and even distribution; this is the very best 
grade of pelt which the seal affords during its life; average weight of skin as taken from 
the body, 7 pounds. 

"Four year old $ , well grown, at June 1 of every season: Fur fully developed as to 
even length, except a decided advance in length and perceptible stiffness over the 
shoulders, in the 'wig;' otherwise perfectly uniform in thickness and even distribution; 
this grade is almost as safe to take and as good as is the 3-year-old; average weight of 
skin as removed, 12 pounds. 

"Five year old <? , well grown, at May to June 1 of every season: Fur fully devel- 
oped, but much longer and decidedly coarser in the 'wig' region; otherwise uniform in 
thickness and distribution; the coarseness of the fur over the shoulders and dispro- 
portionate length thereon destroys that uniformity necessary for rating Al in the 
market; in fact, it does not pay to take this skin; average weight, 16 pounds. 

43 



44 ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. 

"Six-year-old $ , well grown, from May to June 1 of every season: Fur fully devel- 
oped, still longer and stiffer in the 'wig' region, with a slightly thinner distribution 
over the post-dorsal region, and shorter; this skin is never taken — it is profitless; average 
weight, 25 pounds. 

" Seven-year-old and upward $ , from May to June 1 of every season: Fur fully devel- 
oped, but very unevenly distributed, being relatively scant and short over the poste- 
rior dorsal region, while it is twice as long and very coarse in the covering to the 
shoulders especially and the neck and chest. Skins are valueless to the fur trade; 
weights, 45 to 60 pounds. 

"The analysis, as above, is a brief epitom^ of the entire subject; only, it should 
be added that the female skins are as finely furred as are the best grades of the males; 
and also, that age does not cause the quality of their pelage to deteriorate, which it 
does to ^0 marked an extent in the males. But, taking them into consideration ifl 
entirely out of the question, and ought to be so forever. 

"The foetal coat of the pup is composed of coarse black hair alone, the underwool 
not at all developed, when this is shed and the new coat put on in September and 
October, it is furred and haired as a yearling, which I diagnose above; this pelage has, 
however, no commercial value. 

"All the skins taken by the company for the last eight years have been prime 
skins, in the fair sense of the term; but all the sealskin sacques made therefrom have 
not been of the first quality, by any means. 

"In order that the rules and regulations and the law governing and protecting the 
interests of the Government on these islands maybe fully understood, I embody them 
in the appendix." 



EXHIBIT C. 

[See recapitulation on p. 51.] 

C. M. Lampson & Co. exposed to sale by auction at the College Ilill public sale room 
on Friday, December 16, 1904, at 10 o'clock precisely, the following goods, viz, 
20,000 skins salted fur seal, "Alaska, " 86 skins salted fur seal, "Alaska. " (Prompt, 
December 30, 1904.) The purchasers are particularly requested to have some one 
in attendance to superintend the counting, as no claim for deficiencies can be 
allowed after the goods have been counted and delivered from the warehouse. 

CONDITIONS OF SALE. 

First. The highest bidder to be the purchaser. 

Second. The purchasers shall have an allowance of £2 10s. per cent for discount, and 
shall pay 2s. 6d. for each lot, together with a brokerage of one-half per cent to the 
selling brokers and a deposit of 25 per cent on the amount of their purchase, if required 
to do so at the time of purchase. 

The deposit must in any case be paid in full on or before the prompt day, and in case 
of default C. M. Lampson & Co. are to be at liberty to resell any such lot or lots without 
further notice, and the buyer is to make good to them the deficiency (if any) of such 
resale, together with all expenses, in addition to forfeiting any part of the deposit 
which may have been paid ; and should the goods sell for more on such resale than 
at the present sale the surplus shall belong to C. M. Lampson & (Jo. 

Third. From the day of sale interest at the rate of 5 per cent per annum will be 
allowed on all payments made in anticipation of the prompt. 

Fourth. All payments (except the charge for cold storage) to be made to the selling 
brokers, who will give orders for the delivery of the goods so paid for. 

Fifth. The goods to be taken with all faults and to be paid for on or before the 
prompt day; but should any of the purchasers wish to delay clearing any of their 
goods they shall have the option of doing so on the following terms: 

The amount of the purchase shall be ascertained and a deposit of not less than 25 
per cent thereon paid to the selling brokers on or before the prompt day. 

Interest at the rate of 5 per cent per annum will be charged on the amount unpaid 
from the prompt day to the day of payment. 

Payment shall be made in full, with interest, nine months from the day of sale, say, 
the 16th day of September, 1905, when the goods shall be cleared and taken away. 

C. M. Lampson & Co. are to be at liberty, as soon as they may think proper, to resell, 
without fm-ther notice, any goods which have not been cleared by the buyer on or 
before the 16th day of September, 1905, and the said buyer is to' make good to them 
the deficiency (if any) of such resale, together with all expenses, in addition to forfeit- 
ing the deposit of 25 per cent, and should the goods sell for more on such resale than 
at the present sale the surplus shall belong to C. M. Lampson & Co. 

Sixth. The selling brokers will not recognize or act upon any notice from a purchaser 
of the transfer of any goods (purchased by him) to another party, unless they are 
satisfied as to the responsibility of such other party, and then only on the understand- 
ing that such other party accepts the goods subject to the sale conditions. 

Seventh. That such of the purchasers as shall leave their goods in C. M. Lampson & 
Co. 's warehouse (whether wholly or partially paid for after the prompt day), shall 
pay them on delivery of the goods, for cold storage. Is. and 6d. per £100 on the amount 
of purchase for each week or part of a week from the prompt day until the goods are 
taken away from the cold store. 

Eighth. That C. M. Lampson & Co., being partners in the firm of C. W. Martin & 
Sons, agree to consider any goods placed in the hands of that firm for manufacturing 
purposes as being still in their own custody on condition, however, that the skins 
shall not be drawn away from the cold store to the Alaska factory until Messrs. C. W. 
Martin & Sons are ready to commence manufacturing them. 

Ninth. All goods, whether paid for or not, shall be at the risk of the purchasers from 
the day of sale, but they will be insured against fire free of charge until delivered 
under the conditions of C. M. Lampson & Co. 's policies with fire insurance companies, 

45 



46 



ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. 



Tenth. Should any dispute arise respecting the sale of any lot, the same shall be 
put up again and resold; and should any difference arise between any two or more 
buyers, the same shall be left to the decision of the selling broker. 

Eleventh. No claims for deficiencies will be allowed by C. M. liampson & Co. after 
the goods have been delivered from their warehouse, nor do the sellers hold themselves 
responsible for the descriptions in this catalogue. 

The selling brokers will deliver to the buyers on the morning following the sale a 
contract for the goods purchased, and the selling brokers will consider such contracts 
as accepted by the buyers, unless exception is taken to them within 24 hours of delivery 
of same. 



In cold storage at Southeastern Wharf (samples at 64 Queen Street, E. C), 20,000 skins 

salted fur seal, Alaska. 

[At per skin, to advance Is.] 
[Buyers are requested to note that all skins are stamped L A on the right cheek.] 

13 Middlings, 4-year-olds, 11 to 
12 pound skins. 

65 Middlings and smalls, short 
4-year-olds and long 3- 
year-olds, 9 to 10 pound 
skins. 



1903 catch. 



Lot 1 



189/ 



1904 catch. 



1903 catch. 



1904 catch. 



2 


190/ 


70 Smalls, 3-year-olds, 7 to 8 
pound skins. 


3 


192/ 


70 


4 


192/ 


70 


5 


193/ 


76 


6 


204/ 


70 Unhaired and dressed (A). 
3 Middlings and smalls, "short" 


Lot 7 


198/ 


4-year-olds and "long" 
3-year-olds. 
.70 Smalls; 3-year-olds. 


8 


199/ 


170 


9 


199/ 


|2 
140 


Lot 10 


179/ 


80 Large pups, 2-year-olds, 6- 
pound skins. 


11 


185/ 


80 


12 


186/ 


80 


13 


188/ 


80 


14 


189/ 


80 


15 


189/ 


80 


16 


189/ 


80 


17 


189/ 


80 


18 


189/ 


80 


19 


189/ 


80 


20 


189/ 


61 


21 


200/ 


80 Unhaired and dressed (B). 


Lot 22 


194/ 


80 Large pups, 2-year-olds, 6- 
pound skins. 


23 


194/ 


80 


24 


194/ 


80 


25 


194/ 


80 


26 


194/ 


80 


27 


194/ 


80 


28 


194/ 


80 


29 


194/ 


80 


30 


194/ 


53 



ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. 



47 



In cold storage at Southeastern Wharf {samples at 64 Queen Street, E. C), 20,000 skins 
salted fur seal, Alaska — Continued. 



1903 catch '. Lot 31 



148/ 



90 



32 


150/ 


90 


33 


151/ 


90 


34 


154/ 


90 


35 


154/ 


90 


36 


154/ 


90 


37 


155/ 


90 


38 


155/ 


90 


39 


155/ 


90 


40 


155/ 


90 


41 


155/ 


90 


42 


155/ 


90 


43 


155/ 


90 


44 


155/ 


90 


45 


156/ 


90 


46 


156/ 


90 


47 


156/ 


90 


48 


156/ 


90 


49 


156/ 


90 


50 


156/ 


90 


51 


156/ 


90 


52 


156/ 


90 


53 


156/ 


90 


54 


156/ 


90 


55 


156/ 


90 


56 


156/ 


90 


57 


156/ 


90 


58 


156/ 


90 


59 


156/ 


90 


60 


156/ 


90 


61 


156/ 


90 


62 


156/ 


90 


63 


156/ 


90 


64 


156/ 


71 


65 


164/ 


90 


66 


176/ 


90 



Middling pups are the "short" 
2-year-olds and "long" year- 
lings, 5-pound skins. 



1904 catch Lot 67 156/ 90 



68 156/ 90 

69 156/ 90 

70 156/ 90 

71 156/ 90 

72 156/ 90 

73 156/ 90 

74 155/ 90 

75 155/ 90 

76 155/ 90 

77 154/ 90 

78 155/ 90 

79 155/ 90 

80 155/ 90 

81 155/ 90 

82 155/ 90 

83 155/ 90 

84 155/ 63 



Unhaired and dressed (D). 

Dressed, dyed, and machined 
(C). 

Middling pups are the "short" 
2-year-olds, and ' 'long' ' year- 
lings. 



48 



AL.ASKAN SEAL. FISHERIES. 



In cold storage at Southeastern Wharf (samples at 64 Queen Street, E. C), 20,000 skins 
salted fur seals, Alaska — Continued' 

1903 catch 



1904 catch. 



Lot 85 


119/ 


100 " Small pups, " " yearlings, " 
4i-pound skins. 


86 


119/ 


100 


87 


119/ 


100 


88 


119/ 


100 


89 


119/ 


100 


90 


119/ 


100 


91 


119/ 


100 


92 


119/ 


100 


93 


119/ 


100 


94 


119/ 


100 


95 


119/ 


100 


96 


119/ 


100 


97 


119/ 


100 


98 


119/ 


100 


99 


119/ 


100 


100 


119/ 


100 


101 


119/ 


100 


102 


119/ 


100 


103 


119/ 


100 


104 


119/ 


100 


105 


118/ 


100 


106 


117/ 


100 


107 


116/ 


100 


108 


116/ 


100 


109 


116/ 


100 


110 


116/ 


100 


111 


116/ 


100 


112 


116/ 


100 


113 


116/ 


100 


114 


116/ 


100 


115 


116/ 


100 


116 


116/ 


100 


117 


118/ 


100 


118 


117/ 


100 


119 


117/ 


100 


120 


117/ 


100 


121 


119/ 


100 


122 


119/ 


100 


123 


119/ 


100 


124 


118/ 


100 


125 


118/ 


100 


126 


119/ 


100 


127 


119/ 


100 


128 


119/ 


100 


129 


119/ 


100 


130 


118/ 


100 Small pups, yearlings, 4^- 
pound skins. 


131 


119/ 


100 


132 


119/ 


118 


133 


124/ 


100 LTnhaired and dressed (G). 


134 


134/ 


100 Dressed, dyed, and ma- 
chined (E). 


Lot 135 


120/ 


100 Small pups, yearlings, 4^- 
pound skins. 


136 


120/ 


100 


137 


120/ 


100 


138 


119/ 


100 


139 


119/ 


100 


140 


119/ 


100 


141 


119/ 


100 


142 


119/ 


100 


143 


119/ 


100 


144 


119/ 


100 


145 


119/ 


100 



ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. 



49 



In cold storage at Southeastern Wharf {samples at 64 Queen Street, E. C), 20,000 skins 
salted fur seal, Alaska — Continued. 



1904 catch : Lot 146 



1903 catch. 



1904 catch. 
1903 catch. 



147 

148 

149 

Lot 150 

151 
152 
153 
154 
155 
156 
157 
158 
159 
160 
161 
162 
163 
164 
165 
166 
167 
168 
169 
170 
171 
172 
173 
174 
175 

Lot 176 

177 
Lot 178 



179 



180 

1904 catch Lot 181 

1903 catch Lot 182 

183 

1904 catch Lot 184 

1903 catch Lot 185 

186 
187 
188 
189 

1904 catch Lot 190 

191 

1903 catch Lot 192 

193 
194 

1904 catch Lot 195 

1903 catch Lot 196 

95100— No. 1—11 4 



119/ 

119/ 
120/ 

120/ 
106/ 

106/ 
106/ 
109/ 
109/ 
109/ 
109/ 
108/ 
107/ 
106/ 
105/ 
104/ 
105/ 
105/ 
106/ 
105/ 
106/ 
105/ 
106/ 
105/ 
105/ 
105/ 
105/ 
105/ 
110/ 
118/ 

106/ 

105/ 
86/ 



115/ 
119/ 

118/ 

118/ 
118/ 
121/ 

115/ 

115/ 

115/ 

115/ 

115/ 

115/ 

115/ 

95/ 

95/ 

95/ 

95/ 

79/ 



100 

100 
100 
122 
110 

110 
110 
110 
110 
110 
110 
110 
110 
110 
110 
110 
110 
110 
110 
110 
110 
110 
110 
110 
110 
110 

no 

108 

no 
no 

no 

113 
102 



Small pups, yearlings, 4^- 
pound skins. 



Extra small pups, "short" 
yearlings, 4-pound skins. 



54 

I 54 



29 

75 
75 
87 

96 

96 

96 

96 

95 

96 

96 

128 

128 

127 

150 

188 



Ex. small pups. 

Unhaired and dressed (I). 

Dressed, dyed, and ma- 
chined (H). 

Ex. small pups, "short" 
yearlings, 4-poimd skins. 

Ex. ex. small pups, "runts, "^ 
yearlings, 3-pound skins. 

Middlings and smalls, low, 
etc. 

Smalls, low, etc. 



Middlings and emails, low, 

etc. 
Smalls, low, etc. 
Large pups, low, etc. 

Large pups, low, etc., 2-year- 
olds, 6-pound skins. 
Middling pups, low, etc. 



Middling pups, low, etc. 
Small pups, low, etc. 



^•^ 



Small pups, low, etc. 
Ex. small pups, low, etc* 



50 



ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. 



In cold storage at Southeastern Wharf (samples at 64 Queen Street, E. C), 20,000 skins 
salted fur seal, Alaska — Continued. 



1904 catch. 



Lot 197 



81/ 



1903 catch Lot 198 175/ 

1904 catch Lot 199 170/ 

1903 catch Lot 200 179/ 

201 143/ 

202 143/ 

203 143/ 

1904 catch Lot 204 143/ 

1903 catch Lot 205 107/ 

206 107/ 

207 107/ 

208 107/ 



1904 catch 
1903 catch 



Lot 209 

Lot 210 

211 
212 



107/ 
91/ 

91/ 

66/ 



22 
1 



31 
2 

17 

58 

86 

91 

91 

91 

88 

110 

110 

109 

109 

107 

12 

114 

2 

113 
2 

42 



Ex. small pups, low, etc., 
"short" yearlings. 

Ex. ex. small pup, low, etc., 
short '"yearling." The 
"runt" taken by United 
States Government agent. 

Middlings and smalls, cut, 
etc. 

Smalls, cut, etc. 

Middlings and smalls, cut, 
etc. 

Smalls, cut, etc. 

Large pups, cut, etc. 

Large pups, cut, etc. 

Middling pups, cut, etc. 



Middling pups, cut, etc. 
Small pups, cut, etc. 



Small pups, cut, etc. 
Extra small pups, cut, etc. 
Extra small pups, cut, etc. 
Extra extra small pups, cut, 
etc. 



Faulty. 



Eighty-six skins, salted fur seal, Alaska 
Lot 213 106/ 



86 Skins, 12 smalls, 18 large 
pups. 29 middling pups, 
23 small pups, 4 extra 
small pups. 

SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS OP THIS SALE. 

Fifteen thousand of this sale brought over from catch of 1903, and 5,000 from 
the catch of 1904, leaving 8,000 skins of the catch of 1904 to go over to the sale of 
December, 1905. The prices have advanced in this sale 23 per cent over the prices 
■of December, 1903. 

Note. — Since only 5,000 of the catch of 1904 is offered in association with 15,000 of 
the catch of 1903, the proportions of the catch of 1904, as contrasted with the sizes of 
1903, can only be reached by multiplying the sizes of 1904 three times, so as to make 
the total 15,000, or equal to that of 1903. This makes the following contrast: 



1904 


1903 





13 


594 


90 


144 


495 


2,514 


1,177 


5,109 


3,969 


5,337 


5,439 


771 


3,273 


3 


106 



Remarks. 



Middlings 

Middlings and smalls.. 

Smalls 

Large pups 

Middling pups 

;Smallpups 

Extra small pups 

Extra extra small pups 



A loss in 1904 of 13 skins. 
A gain in 1904 of 504 skins. 
A loss in 1904 of 351 skins. 
A gain in 1904 of 1,337 skins. 
A gain in 1904 of 1,140 skins. 
A loss in 1904 of 102 skins. 
A loss in 1904 of 2,502 skins. 
A loss in 1904 of 103 skins. 



Or, in other words, this contrast shows that the restrictions imposed upon the killing 
and taking of skins in 1904 prevented the lessees from getting some 2,700 small skins 
which they would have taken under the regulations of 1903; but at the same time 
they have increased their killing of the large skins about 2,500 over their proportion 
of such skins in 1903. 



ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. 51 

It may be that the balance of the catch of 1904, some 8,000 skins, which is held over 
for the sales in December, 1905, will not show up in the proportion assumed above; 
it may be that the run of small skins will be very much greater in it than appears in 
the run of the 5,000 rlassified and sold December 16, 1904. 

A. W. E. 

January 5, 1905. 



Analysis of this Sale of Pribilof Fur-Seal Skins, December 16, 1904, in 

London. 

Catchof 1904 {5,000 offered). Number 

Sizes and ages: of skins. 

4- year-old skins, or ' ' middlings, " 12 to 14 pound skins 

"Short" 4-year-olds and "long" 3-year-olds, or "middlings and smalls," 

9 to 11 pound skins 198 

3-year-olds, or ' ' smalls, " 7 to 8 pound skins 46 

2-year-olds, or "large pups," 6-pound skins 838 

"Long" yearlings and "short" 2-year-old8, or "middling pups," 5^- 

pound skins 1, 703 

"Yearlings," or "small pups," 4^-pound skins 1,779 

"Short" yearlings, or "ex. small pups," SJ-pound skins 257 

"Runts," or "ex. ex. small pups," 3-pound skins 1 

Total catch of 1904 4, 882 

Of which 2,037 are yearlings. 

Catch of 190.3 (15,000 offered). 
Sizes and ages: 

4-year-olds, middlings 13 

Middlings and smalls 90 

Smalls 495 

Large pups 1, 177 

Middling pups 3, 969 

Small pups 5, 439 

Ex. small pups 3, 273 

Ex. ex. small pups 106 

Total classified catch of 1903 14, 579 

Total classified catch of 1904 4, 882 

19, 461 
The balance, 539 skins, not covered definitely in the catalogue as to size and Beason, 



EXHIBIT D. 

(See recapitulation on p. 58.] 

C. M. Lampoon & Co. exposed to sale by auction, at the College Hill public sale- 
room, on Friday, December 15, 1905, at 10 o'clock precisely, the following goods, 
viz: 22,310 skins salted fur seal, Alaska; 100 skins salted fur seal, Alaska. (Prompt, 
Dec. 29, 1905.) The purcha'^ers are particularly requested to have some one in 
attendance to superintend the counting, as no claim for deficiencies can be allowed 
after the goods have been counted and delivered from the warehouse. 

CONDITIONS OF SALE. 

First. The highest bidder to be the purchaser. 

Second; The purchasers shall have an allowance of £2 lOs. per cent for discount, 
and shall pay 2s. Gd. for each lot, together with a brokerage of J per cent to the sell- 
ing brokers, and a deposit of 25 per cent on the amount of their purchase, if required 
to do so, at the time of purchase. 

The deposit must in any case be paid in full on or before the prompt day, and, in 
case of default, CM. Lampson & Co. are to be at liberty to resell any such lot or 
lots without further notice, and the buyer is to make good to them the deficiency 
(if any) of such resale, together with all expenses, in addition to forfeiting any part 
of the deposit which- may have been paid; and should the goods sell for more on 
each resale than at the present sale the surplus shall belong to C. M. Lampson & Co. 

Third. From the day of sale, interest at the rate of 5 per -cent per annum will be 
allowed on all payments made in anticipation of the prompt. 

Fourth. All- payments (except the charge for cold storage) to be made to the selling 
brokers, who will give orders for the delivery of the goods so paid for. 

Fifth. The goocls to be taken with all faults, and to be paid for on or before the 
prompt day; but should any of the purchasers wish to delay clearing any of their 
goods, they shall have the option of doing so on the following terms: 

The amount of the purchase shall be ascertained and a dejrosit of not less than 
25 per cent thereon paid to the selling brokers on or before the prompt day. 

Interest at the rate of 5 per cent per annum will be charged on the amount unpaid 
from the prompt day to the day of payment. 

Payment shall be made in full, with interest, nine months from the day of sale, 
say, the 15th day of September, 1906, when the goods shall be cleared and taken 
away. 

C. M. Lampson & Co. are to be at liberty, as soon as they may think proper, to 
resell, without further notice, any goods which have not been cleared by the buyer 
on or before the 15th day of September, 1906, and the said buyer is to make good 
to them the deficiency (if any) of such resale, together with all expenses, in addition 
to forfeiting the deposit of 25 per cent, and should the goods sell for more on such 
re:5ale than at the present sale, the surplus shall belong to C. M. Lampson & Co. 

Sixth. The selling brokers will not recognize or act upon any notice from a pur- 
chaser of the transfer of any goods (purchased by him) to another party, unless they 
are satisfied as to the responsibility of such other party, and then only on the under- 
standing that such other party accepts the goods subject to the sale conditions. 

Seventh. That such of the purchasers as shall leave their goods in C. M. Lampson 
& Co.'s warehouse (whether wholly or partially paid for) after the prompt day shall 
pay them on delivery of the goods, for cold storage, Is. 6d. per £100 on the amount 
of purchase for each week or part of a week from the prompt day until the goods are 
taken away from the cold store. 

Eighth. That C. M. Lampson & Co., being partners in the firm of C. W. Martin & 
Sons, agree to consider any goods placed in the hands of that firm for manufacturing 
purposes as being still in their own custody, on condition, however, that the skins 
ehall not be drawn away from the cold store to the Alaska factory until Messrs. C. W. 
Martin & Sons are ready to commence manufacturing them. 

52 



ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. 



53 



Ninth. All goods, whether paid for or not, shall be at the risk of the purchasers 
from the day of sale, but they will be insured against fire, free of charge, until deliv- 
ered, under the conditions of C. M. Lampson & Co.'s policies with fire insurance 
companies. . 

Tenth. Should any dispute arise respecting the sale of any lot, the same shall be 
put up again and resold; and should any difference arise between any two or more 
buyers the same shall be left to the decision of the selling broker. 

Eleventh. No claims for deficiencies will be allowed by C. M. Lampson & Co. 
after the goods have been delivered from their warehouse, nor do the sellers hold 
themselves responsible for the descriptions in this catalogue. 

The selling brokers will deliver to the buyers on the morning following the sale 
a contract for the goods purchased, and the selling brokers will consider such con- 
tracts as accepted by the buyers unless exception is taken to them within 24 hours 
of delivery of same. 

In cold storage at Southeastern Wharf (samples at 64 Queen Street, E. C), 22,310 skins 

salted fur seal, Alaska. 

[At per skin, to advance Is.] 
[Buyers are requested to note that all skins are stamped L A on the right cheek.] 

4 Short 4-year-olds, long 3-year-" 
olds, ll'pound skins, mid- 
dlings and smalls. 
70 3-year-olds, 8 J to 9 pound 
skins, "loaded "with 1^ to 2 
pound blubber, smalls. 



1904 catch. 



Lot 1 



1905 catch. 



1904 catch. 



220/ 

2 233/ 

3 233/ 

4 235/ 

Lot 5 235/ 

6 236/ 

7 236/ 
Lot 8 193/ 



r 4 

170 
( 4 
181 
70 



70 



170 

160 
80 



Unhaired and dressed (A). 

Long 3-year-olds, short 4-year- 
olds, middlings and smalls, 
11-pound skins. 

3-year-olds, 8^ to 9 pound 
skins, smalls. 



Long 2-year-olds, short 3-year- 
olds, large pups, 6^ to 7 
pound 14- ounce skins, 
' ' loaded ' ' with 1 to 1^ pound 
blubber, cut. 



9 


194/ 


80 


10 


194/ 


80 


11 


194/ 


80 


12 


194/ 


80 


13 


194/ 


80 


14 


195/ 


80 


15 


195/ 


80 


16 


195/ 


80 


17 


195/ 


80 


18 


195/ 


80 


19 


195/ 


80 


20 


195/ 


74 


21 


199/ 


80 



Unhaired and dressed (B). 



$4 ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. 

In cold storage at Southeastern W harf (samples at 64 Queen Street, E. C), 22,310 skins 
salted fur seal, Alaska — Continued. 

1905 catch Lot 22 197/ 80 Large pups, long 2-year-old8, 

short 3-year-old8, 6 J to 7 
pound 14 ounce skins av- 
erage, "loaded" with 1 to 
1^ pound blubber. 

80 

80 

80 

80 

80 

80 

80 

80 

80 

80 

80 

80 

80 

33 

1904 catch Lot 37 152/ 90 Middling pups, average for 

2-year-old8, 6 to 6*-pound 
skins, loaded with ^ to 1 
pound blubber cut. 

90 

90 

90 

90 

90 

90 

90 

90 

90 

90 

90 

90 

90 

90 

90 

90 

90 

90 

90 

90 

90 

90 

90 

90 

90 

42 

90 Unhaired and dressed (C). 

89 Dressed, dyed and machined 
(4). 



23 


197/ 


24 


197/ 


25 


198/ 


26 


198/ 


27 


198/ 


28 


198/ 


29 


198/ 


30 


198/ 


31 


198/ 


32 


198/ 


33 


198/ 


34 


198/ 


35 


198/ 


36 


198/ 


Lot 37 


152/ 


38 


152/ 


39 


152/ 


40 


152/ 


41 


152/ 


42 


152/ 


43 


152/ 


44 


152/ 


45 


152/ 


46 


152/ 


47 


152/ 


48 


152/ 


49 


153/ 


50 


152/ 


51 


152/ 


52 


152/ 


53 


152/ 


54 


153/ 


55 


153/ 


56 


153/ 


57 


153/ 


58 


153/ 


59 


153/ 


60 


153/ 


61 


153/ 


62 


153/ 


63 


153/ 


64 


161/ 


65 


167/ 



ALASKAN SEAL FISHEBIES. 55 

In cold storage at Southeastern W harf {samples at 64 Queen Street, E. C), 22,310 skins 
salted fur seal, Alaska — Continued. 



1905 catch. 



66 


147/ 


90 Middling pups, average 2-year- 
olds, loaded with ^ to 1 
pound blubber cut, 6 to 
6^-pound skins. 


67 


147/ 


90 


68 


147/ 


90 


69 


147/ 


90 


70 


147/ 


90 


71 


147/ 


90 


72 


147/ 


90 


73 


147/ 


90 


74 


147/ 


90 


75 


147/ 


90 


76 


147/ 


90 


77 


147/ 


90 


78 


147/ 


90 


79 


147/ 


90 


80 


147/ 


90 


81 


147/ 


90 


82 


147/ 


90 


83 


147/ 


90 Middling pups, average 
2-year-olds. 


84 


147/ 


90 


85 


147/ 


90 


86 


147/ 


90 


87 


147/ 


90 


88 


147/ 


90 


89 


147/ 


90 


90 


147/ 


90 


91 


147/ 


90 


92 


147/ 


90 


93 


147/ 


90 


94 


147/ 


90 


95 


148/ 


90 


96 


147/ 


90 


97 


147/ 


90 


98 


148/ 


90 


99 


148/ 


90 


100 


147/ 


90 


101 


147/ 


90 


102 


147/ 


90 


103 


147/ 


90 


104 


147/ 


90 


105 


147/ 


90 


106 


147/ 


90 


107 


147/ 


90 


108 


147/ 


90 


109 


147/ 


90 


110 


147/ 


90 


111 


147/ 


90 


112 


147/ 


90 


113 


147/ 


86 



ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. 



In cold storage at Southeastern Wharf {samples at 64 Queen Street, E. C), 22,S10 skint 
salted for seal, .4tas^a-^Continued. 



J904 catch. 



Lot 114 117/ 100 Small pups, "short" 2-year- 
olds, "long" yearlings, 
"loaded" with § to 1 
pound blubber "cut," 
5 to 5J pound skins. 



115 


117/ 


100 


116 


117/ 


100 


117 


117/ 


100 


118 


117/ 


100 


119 


117/ 


100 


120 


116/ 


100 


121 


116/ 


100 


122 


116/ 


100 


123 


116/ 


100 


124 


116/ 


100 


125 


116/ 


100 


126 


116/ 


100 


127 


116/ 


100 


128 


116/ 


100 


129 


116/ 


100 


130 


116/ 


100 


131 


116/ 


100 


132 


116/ 


100 


133 


117/ 


100 


134 


117/ 


100 


134 


117/ 


100 


135 


117/ 


47 


136 


123/ 


100 


137 


130/ 


100 



1905 catch , Lot 138 



117 



139 


117/ 


100 


140 


117/ 


100 


141 


117/ 


100 


142 


117/ 


100 


143 


117/ 


100 


144 


117/ 


100 


145 


117/ 


100 


146 


117/ 


100 


147 


117/ 


100 


148 


117/ 


100 


149 


117/ 


100 


150 


117/ 


100 


151 


117/ 


100 


152 


118/ 


100 


153 


118/ 


100 


154 


117/ 


100 


155 


117/ 


100 


156 


117/ 


100 


157 


117/ 


100 


158 


117/ 


100 


159 


117/ 


100 


160 


117/ 


100 


161 


117/ 


100 


162 


118/ 


100 


163 


118/ 


100 


164 


118/ 


100 


165 


118/ 


100 


166 


118/ 


100 


167 


118/ 


100 


168 


119/ 


100 


169 


118/ 


100 


170 


118/ 


100 


171 


118/ 


100 



100 



Unhaired and dressed (D). 

Dressed, dyed, and ma- 
chined (3). 

Small pups, "short" 2-year- 
olds, "long" yearlings, 5 
to 5^ pound skins. 



ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. 



57 



In cold storage at Southeastern Wharf {^samples at 64 Queen Street, E. C), 22,310 skins 
salted for seal, Alaska — Continued. 



1905 catch Lot 172 



1904 catch. 

1905 catch. 



1904 catch. 

1905 catch. 

1904 catch - 

1905 catch. 

1904 catch. 

1905 catch. 

1904 catch. 

1905 catch. 

1904 catch. 

1905 catch. 



118/ 



100 



Small pups, 5 to 5i pound 
skins, yearlings. 



173 


118/ 


100 


174 


118/ 


100 


175 


118/ 


100 


176 


119/ 


100 


177 


119/ 


100 


178 


119/ 


100 


179 


119/ 


100 


180 


119/ 


100 


181 


119/ 


100 


182 


120/ 


100 


183 


120/ 


100 


1S4 


119/ 


100 


185 


119/ 


100 


186 


119/ 


100 


187 


120/ 


100 


188 


120/ 


100 


189 


120/ 


100 


190 


120/ 


100 


I'Jl 


120/ 


54 


Lot 192 


107/ 


110 Ex. small pups. 


193 


107/ 


110 


194 


110/ 


139 


Lot 195 


111/ 


110 Ex. small pups, yearlings, 
4^ to 5 pound 8 ounce 
skins. 


196 


111/ 


110 


197 


111/ 


110 


198 


112/ 


110 


199 


112/ 


110 


200 


112/ 


110 


201 ■ 


112/ . 


.70" 

14 Middlings and smalls, low, 


Lot 202 


' 128/ 


etc.' 
47 Smalls, low, etc. 
7 Middlinga and smalls, low, 


Lot 203 


130/ 


etc. 
71 Smalls, low, etc. 


Lot 204 


125/ 


71 Large pups, low, etc. 


205 


125/ 


70 


Lot 206 


125/ 


81 Large pups, low, etc. 


207 


126/ 


81 


208 


127/ 


80 


209 


127/ 


80 


Lot 210 


122/ 


103 Middling pups, low, etc. 


211 


122/ 


103 


212 


121/ 


102 


Lot 213 


123/ 


97 Middling pups, low, etc. 


214 


123/ 


97 


215 


123/ 


97 


216 


123/ 


96 


Lot 217 


100/ 


121 Small pups, low, etc. 


218 


100/ 


120 


Lot 219 


102/ 


89 Small pups, low, etc. 


220 


103/ 


89 


221 


103/ 


88 


Lot 222 


85/ 


/ 34 Ex. small pupa, low, etc. 
\ 1 Ex. ex. small pup, low, etc. 


Lot 223 


88/ 


47 Ex. small pups, low, etc. 
f 4 Middlings and smalls, cut. 



1904 catch Lot 224 



190/ 



28 



etc. 
Smalls, cut, etc. 



58 



ALASKAN SEAL FISHEEIES. 



In cold storage at Southeastern Wharf {samples at 64 Queen Street, E. C), 22,810 skins 
salted fur seal, Alaska — Continued. 



1905 catch Lot 225 

1904 catch Lot 226 

1905 catch Lot 227 

228 
229 

1904 catch Lot 230 

231 

1905 catch Lot 232 

233 
234 
235 
236 

1904 catch Lot 237 



1905 catch. 



238 

Lot 239 
240 
241 
242 
243 
244 



192/ 

183/ 
187/ 
186/ 
186/ 
144/ 
144/ 
144/ 
144/ 
145/ 
145/ 
145/ 

110/ 

111/ 
111/ 

111/ 
112/ 

111/ 
99/ 

83/ 



66 

94 

87 

87 

86 

70 

70 

99 

99 

99 

98 

98 

87 

9 

86 

I 9 

115 

115 

115 

115 

60 

79 



Middlings and smalls, cut. 

etc. 
Smalls, cut, etc. 
Large pups, cut, etc. 
Large pups, cut, etc. 



Middling pups, cut, etc. 
Middling pups, cut, etc. 



Small pups, cut, etc. 
Ex. small pups, cut, etc. 

Small pups, cut, etc. 



Ex. small pups, cut, etc. 

Faulty; 5 smalls, 16 large 
pups, 36 middling pups, 
20 small pups, 2 ex. small 
pfups. 

One hundred skins, salted fur seal, Alaska. 

Lot 245, 100 skins, 112/: 

Large pups 5 

Middling pups 53 

Small pups 34 

Ex. small pups 8 

Recapitulation — 1905 catch, Pribilof Islands, tally of catch as annotated. 

9 tolOlb. skins, middlingsand smalls, "short "4-year-olds, "long "3-year-olds.. 415 

8 pound skins, small, 3-year-olds 

7 to 7^ pound skins, large pups, "short" 3-year-olds, "long" 2-year-olds 2, 535 

6 to 6^ pound skins, middling pups, 2-year-olds, or "short" 2-year-olds or 

"long" yearlings 4, 816 

5 to 5^ pound skins, small pups 6, 081 

4^ to 5 pound skins, extra small pups, ' ' short " yearlings 837 

Total 14, 674 

Yearlings 6, 918 

The above shows some 400 skins shipped in from 1904. 
1905— St. Paul 13, 000 

St. George 1, 368 

14, 368 

Note. — As to the "short 2-year-olds " of 1905 catch above cited, a "short " 2-year-old 
skin must be either from a well-grown yearling's body or from a small seal's body not 
of two years' growth, i. e., from a seal born late in July, 1904, and killed in June, 1905, 
or early in July, 1905, so putting it "under 2 years of age;" and so, contrary to the 
Hitchcock rules, it is taken. The benefit of the doubt which belongs to it is improp- 
erly denied. 

This analysis shows that out of this season's catch of 14,674 skins 6,918 of them were 
taken in violation of the Hitchcock rules. 



EXHIBIT E. 

[See recapitulation on p. 63.] 

C. M. Lampson & Co. exposed for sale by auction at the College Hill Public Sale Room 
on Friday, December 14, 1906, at 10 o'clock, the following goods, \az, 14,392 skins, 
salted fur seal, Alaska; 86 skins, salted fur seal, Alaska. (Prompt, December 28, 
1906.) The purchasers are particularly requested to have some one in attendance 
to superintend the counting, as no claim for deficiencies can be allowed after the 
goods have been counted and delivered from the warehouse. 

CONDITIONS OF SALE. 

First. The highest bidder to be the purchaser. 

Second. The purchasers shall have an allowance of £2 10s. per cent for discount and 
shall pay 2s. 6d. for each lot, together with a brokerage of one-half per cent to the 
selling brokers and a deposit of 25 per cent on the amount of their purchase, if required 
to do so, at the time of purchase. 

The deposit must in any case be paid in full on or before the prompt day, and in 
case of default C. M. Lampson & Co. are to be at liberty to resell any such lot or lots 
without further notice, and the buyer is to make good to them the deficiency (if any) 
of such resale, together with all expenses, in addition to forfeiting any part of the 
deposit which may have been paid, and should the goods sell for more on such resale 
than at the present sale the surplus shall belong to CM. Lampson & Co. 

Third. From the day of sale, interest at the rate of 5 per cent per annum will be 
allowed on all payments made in anticipation of the prompt. 

Fourth. All payments (except the charge for cold storage) to be made to the selling 
brokers, who will give orders for the delivery of the goods so paid for. 

Fifth. The goods to be taken with all faults and to be paid for on or before the 
prompt day, but should any of the purchasers wish to delay clearing any of their 
goods they shall have the option of doing so on the followii^ terms: 

The amount of the purchase shall be ascertained and a deposit of not less than 25 
per cent thereon paid to the selling brokers on or before the prompt day. 

Interest at the rate of 5 per cent per annum will be charged on the amount unpaid 
from the prompt day to the day of payment. 

Payment shall be made in full, with interest, nine months from the day of sale,, 
say the 14th day of September, 1907, when the goods shall be cleared and taken away. 

C. M. Lampson & Co. are to be at liberty, as soon as they may think proper, to 
resell, without further notice, any goods which have not been cleared by the buyer 
on or before the 14th day of September, 1907, and the said buyer is to make good to 
them the deficiency (if any) of such resale, together with all expenses, in addition 
to forfeiting the deposit of 25 per cent, and should the goods sell for more on such 
resale than at the present sale the surplus shall belong to C. M. Lampson & Co. 

Sixth. The selling brokers will not recognize or act upon any notice from a purchaser 
of the transfer of any goods (purchased by him) to another party, unless they are 
satisfied as to the responsibility of such other party, and then only on the understand- 
ing that such other party accepts the goods subject to the sale conditions. 

Seventh. That such of the purchasers as shall leave their goods in C. M. Lampson 
& Co.'s warehouse (whether wholly' or partially paid for) after the prompt day shall 
pay them on delivery of the goods for cold storage Is. 6d. per £100 on the amount 
of purchase for each week or part of a week from the prompt day luitil the goods are 
taken away from the cold store. 

Eighth. That C. M. Lampson & Co., being partners in the firm of C. W. Martin & 
Sons, agree to consider any goods placed in the hands of that firm for manufacturing 
purposes as being still in their own custody, on condition, however, that the skins 
shall not be dra'mi away from the cold store to the Alaska factory until Messrs. C. W. 
Martin & Sons are ready to commence manufacturing them. 

Ninth. All goods, whether paid for or not, shall be at the risk of the purchasers 
from the day of sale, but they will be insured against fire, free of charge, until delivered 
under the conditions of C. M. Lampson & Co. 's policies with fire insurance companies. 

Tenth. Should any dispute arise respecting the sale of any lot, the same shall be 
put up again and resold, and should any difference arise between any two or more 
buyers the same shall be left to the decision of the selling broker. 

59 



60 ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. 

Eleventh. No claims for deficiencies will be allowed by C. M. Lampson & Co. after 
the goods have been delivered from their warehouse, nor do the sellers h<jld themselves 
responsible for the descriptions in this catalogue. 

The selling brokers will deliver to the buyers on the morning following the sale a 
contract for the goods purchased, and the selling brokers will consider such contracts 
as accepted by the buyers, unless exception is taken to them within 24 hours of 
delivery of same. 

In cold storage at Southeastern Whar/{samples at 64 Qtieen Street, E. C), 14,S92 skins, salted 

fur seal, Alaska. 

[At per skin, to advance Is.] 
[Buyers are requested to note that all skins are stamped L A on the right cheek.] 

(6 Middlings and smalls, or "short" 4-year-olds and long 4-y ear- 
olds, 11-pound skins. 
53 Smalls, or 3-year-olds, 8^ to 9 pound skins. 



2 


202/ 


153 


3 


190/ 


80 Large pups, "long" 2-year-olds, and "short" 3-year-olds, 6^ to 
7i pound skins. 


4 


190/ 


80 


5 


190/ 


80 


6 


190/ 


80 


7 


190/ 


80 


8 


196/ 


80 


9 


196/ 


80 


10 


196/ 


80 


11 


196/ 


80 


12 


196/ 


80 


13 


196/ 


80 


14 


194/ 


80 


15 


192/ 


69 


16 


200/ 


80 Dressed, dyed, and machined (A). 


17 


137/ 


90 Middling pups, average 2-vear-old8, good, 6 to 6^ pound skins. 


18 


137/ 


90 


19 


137/ 


90 


20 


137/ 


90 


21 


137/ 


90 


22 


137/ 


90 


23 


137/ 


90 


24 


137/ 


90 


25 


137/ 


90 


26 


136/ 


90 


27 


136/ 


90 


28 


135/ 


90 


29 


135/ 


90 


30 


135/ 


90 


31 


135/ 


90 


32 


135/ 


90 


33 


135/ 


90 


34 


135/ 


90 


35 


135/ 


90 


36 


135/ 


90 


37 


134/ 


90 


38 


134/ 


90 


39 


133/ 


90 


40 


133/ 


90 


41 


133/ 


90 


42 


133/ 


90 


43 


133/ 


90 


44 


133/ 


90 


45 


133/ 


90 


46 


133/ 


90 


47 


133/ 


90 


48 


133/ 


90 


49 


133/ 


90 



ALASKAN SEAL FISHEEIES. 61 

In cold storage at Southeastern Wharf (samples at 64 Queen Street, E. C), 14,392 skins^ 
salted fur seal, Alaska — Continued. 

Lot 50 133/ 96 Middling pups, average 2-year-olds, good, 6 to 6J pound skins. 

51 133/ 90 

52 133/ 90 

53 133/ 90 

54 133/ 90 

55 133/ 90 

56 133/ 90 

57 133/ 90 

58 133/ 90 

59 133/ 90 

60 133/ 90 

61 133/ 90 

62 133/ 90 

63 133/ 90 Middling pups, 2-year-olds, 6 to 6^ pound skins. 

64 133/ 90 

65 133/ 90 

66 133/ 53 

67 141/ 90/413 Dressed B. 

68 112/ 100 Small pups, "short" 2-year-olds and "long" yearlings, 5 to 5^ 

pound skins. 

69 112/ 100 

70 112/ 100 

71 112/ 100 

72 112/ 100 

73 112/ 100 

74 112/ 100 

75 112/ 100 

76 112/ 100 

77 112/ 100 

78 113/ 100 

79 112/ 100 

80 112/ 100 

81 112/ 100 

82 112/ 100 

83 112/ 100 

84 112/ 100 

85 112/ 100 

86 113/ 100 

87 112/ 100 

88 113/ 100 

89 113/ 100 

90 113/ 100 

91 113/ 100 

92 113/ 100 

93 113/ 100 

94 113/ 100 

95 113/ 100 

96 113/ 100 

97 114/ 100 

98 114/ 100 
■ 99 114/ 100 

100 114/ 100 

101 114/ 100 

102 114/ 100 

103 114/ 100 

104 114/ 100 

105 114/ 100 

106 114/ 100 

107 114/ 100 

108 114/ 100 

109 114/ 100 

110 114/ 100 

111 114/ 100 



62 ALASKAN SEAL. FISHERIES. 

In cold storage at Southeastern Wharf (samples at 64 Queen Street, E. C), 14,392 skins, 
salted fur seal, Alaska — Continued. 

Lot 112 114/ 100 Small pups, "short" 2-year-old3 and "long" yearlings, 5 
to 5^ pound skins. 

113 114/ 100 

114 114/ 100 

115 114/ 100 

116 114/ 100 

117 114/ 100 

118 113/ 100 

119 113/ 100 

120 113/ 100 

121 113/ 71 

122 128/ 100 Dressed, dyed, and machined (C). 

123 101/ 110 Extra small pups, "short" yearlings, 4 to 4* pound skins. 

124 101/ 110 

125 101/ 110 

126 102/ 110 

127 102/ 46 

128 108/ 44 Smalls, low, etc. 

129 113/ 89 Large pups, etc. 

130 112/ 89 

131 113/ 89 

132 112/ 87 middling pups, low, etc. 

133 112/ 87 

134 112/ 87 

135 113/ 87 

136 113/ 87 

137 113/ 86 

138 113/ 86 

139 97/ 116 small pups, low, etc. 

140 99/ 116 

141 99/ 115 

142 88/ 28 extra small pups, low, etc. 

143 182/ 50 smalls, cut, etc. 

144 166/ 71 large pups, cut, etc. 

145 166/ 71 

146 166/ 72 

147 125/ 97 middlinc; pups, cut, etc. . 

148 125/ 97 

149 125/ 97 

150 125/ 97 

151 125/ 96 

152 125/ 96 

153 105/ 114 small pups, cut, etc. 

154 105/ 114 

155 106/ 113 

156 105/ 113 

157 95/ 32 extra small pups, cut, etc. 

158 72/ 33 faulty (12 large pups, 16 middling pups, 5 small pups). 

86 skins, salted fur seal, Alaska. 

Lot 159 92/ 86 skins (3 smalls, 12 large pups, 45 middling pups, 22 small pupsj 

2 extra small pups, 2 faulty). 

London catch. Island class. 

Middlings, or 4-year-olds 

Middlings and smalls, or small 4-year and large 3-year-old8 6 

Smalls, or 3-year-olds 208 

Large pups, or small 3-year-blds and large 2-year-olds 1, 614 

Middling pups, or average 2-year-olds or "long" and "short" 2-year- 
olds 5,801 

Small pups, or 1-year-olds 6, 289 

Extra small pups, or small 1-year-olds (or "short") 548 



ALASKAX SEAL FISHERIES. 63 

Recapitulation, 1906 catch. 

9-10-pound skins: Middlings and smalls ("smalls," 3-year-olds, large; "mid- 
dlings," 4-year-olds, small) 6 

S-pound skins : Smalls (3-year-olds, average) 208 

7-pound skins: Large pups ("short" 3-year-olds, "long" 2-year-olds) 1,614 

6-6^-pound skins: Middling pups (2-year-olds, average, or "long" yearlings 

and "short" 2-year-olds) 5, 801 

5-5i-pound skins: Small pups (1-year-olds) 6, 289 

4-4i-pound skins: Extra small pups (small 1-year-olds — "runts") 548 

14, 466 

Yearlings 6, 837 

1906: 

St. Paul 10, 942 

St. George 1, 685 



12, 627 



Total by Secretary Metcalf's report, 1906, page 33, 14,643—12,627=2,016; so these 
skins came over from the 1905 "food" skin deal. 

This analysis and Secretary Metcalf's version of it on page 33 of his report for 1906 
declares that the lessees took everything that herded out, save some 800 to 1,000 
small yearlings, during the season of 1906. Nothing has been spared. 

Note. — This analysis shows that out of this season's catch of 14,466 skins, 6,837 
were taken in violation of the Hitchcock rules. 



EXHIBIT F. 

(See pp. 01, (VJ of the Fur Trade Review, New York, issue of Feb., 1911; received at the Congressional 

Library Feb. 7, 1911.] 

Here is the official return made to the Secretary of Commerce and Labor December 
17, 1910, of the sale of 12,920 fur-seal skins taken on the Pribilof Islands during June 
and July, 1910, out of which 8,000 skins are the skins of yearling fur seals, all delib- 
erately and knowingly taken in gross violation of the Hitchcock rules of May 1, 1904, 
and all of which skins are again falsely certified to the department as legally taken 
and "not under 2 years of age"; this done by United States Fish Commissioner Bowers 
and his subordinate agents on the seal islands of Alaska. 

[Memorandum.] 

FLAYS UNITED STATES SEAL POLICY — ZOOLOGIST TELLS SENATE COMMITTEE METHODS 
IN VOGUE PRODUCE ONLY WEAKLINGS. 

Washington, February 4, 1910. — An attack upon the Government's policy in caring 
for fur seals upon the Pribilof Islands in Alaska was made to-day by Dr. William T. 
Hornaday, of the New York Zoological Gardens, and Prof. H. W. Elliott. They 
epoke for the Campfire Club of America before the Senate Committee on Conservation 
of National Resources. 

The speakers declared that under the act of last year, which canceled the lease 
theretofore held by the North American Commercial Co. and gave control of the 
killing of fur seals to the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, there had been no cessation 
of wanton killing. 

Dr. Hornaday condemned the policy of weeding out the males when they are babies, 
leaving only such number as was needed for breeding purposes. He declared that 
the system left weaklings. (Cleveland (Ohio) Plain Dealer, Feb. 5, 1911.) 

[A memorandum for Senator Heyburn in re illegal and injurious killing of fur seals on the Pribilof Islands, 
and falsely certified to the Government as proper and legal by its own sworn agents thereon.] 

Saturday, February 4, before the Committee on Conservation of National Resoiii'ces, 
Secretary Nagel appeared, and his agent in charge of the seal islands, W. I. Lernbkey, 
made a statement to justify the killing of seals on those islands, as ordered by the 
Secretary last season and prior to that. 

Mr. Lembkey's statement, stripped of verbiage, was in effect that — 

I. He killed no seals under 2 years of age. 

II. He killed no females. 

III. He saved 5 per cent of the male 2 and 3 year olds; killed 95 per cent. 
Each and every one of those statements is absolutely untrue, for — 

I. He did kill more than 10,000 seals (out of the 12,920 which he took) which were 
under 2 years of age, and the London records of the sale, December 16 last, if produced, 
will declare it. 

II. He did kill females, therefore, since at least one-third, if not quite one-half of 
the 10,000 "long yearlings" and "short 2-year-olds," which he killed last season, were 
females — since the yearlings haul out in equal numbers, males and females together, 
and are absolutely alike to all outward form, size, and color. (Lembkey admitted that. 
He also admitted that he could not tell the skins apart when removed from the bodies 
as to sex. He also admitted that Uhere was no j^enalty ever inflicted for killing female 
seals.) 

Mr. Lembkey was confronted with the proof that he did not even sj^are the 5 per 
cent "saved" 2 and 3 year old male seals, but so managed this job that after "sparing" 
them in June and July he killed them in October and November following, for " the 
natives' food!" He did not attempt to deny this proof; he could not; it was officially 
made. 

Henry W. Elliott. 

64 



ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. 65 

THE ILLEGAL AND INJURIOUS KILLING OP FUR SEALS ON THE SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA, 

1900-1910. 

[A memorandum of fact concerning the same for Senator Heyburn from H. W. Elliott, Feb. 7, 1911.3 

January, 1911, sales Cape Horn "salted" fur seals, only 350 skins; South Sea, only 
22 skins; total. 372 skins. Sold for £83,227 2s. 3d. 

London, December 16, 1910, 12,920 Pribilof catch of 1910. 
Analysis of the catch on seal islands season of 1910, sold in London December 
16, 1910: 

Pound 
skins. 

78 smalls 7^ to 8 

793 large pups 6-^ to 7 

3,775 mid. pups 5J to 6 

6, 195 small pups 4^ to 5 

1, 809 ex. sm. pups 3^ to 4 

12, 650, or 8,004 under 2 years of age. 
270 not well classified. 



12, 920 

Average price, $34.38 per skin; £83,227 2s. 3d. 

Smalls (2,405) are 3-year-old males. 

Large pups (2,185) are short 3-year-old males and long (2,180) 2-year-old males. 

Middling pups (1,G45) are short 2-year-old males and long yearlings males. 

Small pups (1,265) are yearling males and females. 

Ex. sm. pups (1,225) are runty yearling males and females. 

(Fur Trade Review, New York, Feb. 1, 1911, pp. 61, 62.) 

Ebbitt House, 
Washington, D. C, February 7, 1911. 
Hon. W. B. Heyburn, 

United States Senate. 

My Dear Sir: I inclose, for your information and use, a memorandum based upon 
the official returns from the sale of that killing made last summer on the seal islands 
by Secretary Nagel's direction. 

That this killing was in violation of the statement made to your Committee on 
Conservation last Saturday by Mr. Nagel's agent is self-confessed by those indis- 
putable figures of this London classification. 

This is a serious matter for Mr. Nagel. He has been warned repeatedly that his 
agents were violating the law and regulations of May 1, 1904; he has ignored these 
warnings; so did Secretaries Shaw, Cortelyou, and Gage ignore the warnings given 
them in regular order as to sugar weight frauds. The men who warned these high 
officials were called "bores," "cranks," and "tiresome fellosvs," etc., but at last 
they prevailed, and the frauds were ended. This false entry of sealskins taken in 
open flagrant violation of law will end when Mr. Nagel faces the same before the 
Judiciary Committee of the Sixty-second Congress. He will be obliged to admit his 
en'or in not hewing clo^e to the line. 

The official table of sealskin weights as the seal grows up from birth is published 
by the Government in Bulletin 176, United States Fish Commission, Washington, 
D. C, 1882. No man has even hinted that its figures were not correct until an erro- 
neous table was put out by this man Lembkey, in 1906-1908, in which he makes the 
yearling skins take the place of the pup skins 5 months old and just before they 
leave the islands for their first sea journey and life. These "gray pups" are seldom 
taken to the London sales but when quoted run as follows up to the old bulls, or 
"wigs." The London terms and equivalents are — 

Pound skins. 

Gray pups, or 5 months old 3 to 3^ 

Ex ex small pups, or 8 months old 3^ 

Ex small pups, or 10 months old 4 

Small pups, or 12months old • 4^ to 5 

Middling pups, or 18 to 24 months old 5| to 6 

Large pups, or 24 to 36 months old 6|- to 7 

Smalls, or 36 to 40 months old 7^ to 8 

Middlings and smalls, or 40 to 48 months old 8^ to 10 

Middlings, or 4-year-olds lOJ to 12 

Wigs, or 5i to 6 years old 25 to 36 

Old wigs, or 10 to 18 years old 45 to 65 

95100— No. 1—11 5 



66 ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. 

This statement as above, of the London classification, and its interpretation to the 
age of the seal from birth up to old age, was carefully studied out in 1872-1876 on the seal 
islands by four United States agents, seven agents of the lessees, and myself, and agreed 
upon then as the guide to all official record of the work done on the islands. It is 
absolutely correct to-day; and it has been the standard used in all selection of skins 
since then by the lessees until very lately, when nothing has been left alive up there 
that could be lawfully killed. 

Very truly, yours, Henry W. Elliott, 

Care of Smithsonian Institution. 



[Statement for Hon. W. B. Heyburn, United States Senator, regarding the illegal killing of seals on the 

seal islands of Alaska.] 

Saturday, February 4, 1911, W. L Lembkey, agent of Charles Nagel, Secretary of 
Commerce and Labor, declared to Senate Committee on Conservation of Natural 
Resoiu-ces, that he had killed 12,920 fur seals for their skins on the Pribilof Islands 
during June and July, 1910. He denied the fact that he had killed any seals "under 
2 years of age " and in violation of that pledge given by the department March 10, 
1904, that it would not permit any killing under that age henceforth. 

Tuesday, February 7, 1911. On pages 61-62 of the New York Fur Trade Review, 
February 1, 1911, and just received at the Congressional Library to-day, is the fol- 
lowing official classification of the sale made December 16 last of those skins above 

cited in London, viz: 

Pound skins . 

78 smalls, or 3-year-olds 7^ to 8 

793 large pups, or short 3-year-olds or long 2-year-olds 6^ to 7 

3,775 middling pups, or short 2-year-olds and long yearlings 5^ to 6 

6,195 small pups, or yearlings 4J to 5 

1,809 extra small pups, or "runty " yearlings 3^ to 4 

270 not well classified. 



12,920 total, out of which 8,000 skins are indisputably classified December 16 last 
as "under 2 years of age " and taken in violation of the rules of the depart- 
ment. 

Henry W. Elliott. 



EXHIBIT G. 

17 Grace Avenue, Lakewood, Ohio, 

December 19, 1906. 

Hon. Oscar Straus, 

Secretary Department Commerce and Labor, Washington, D. C. 

Dear Sir: In the report of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor recently trans- 
mitted by the President to Congress, a discussion of the condition of the fur-seal 
herd of Alaska appears, and reference is made to the report of E. W. Sims, who made 
an investigation into the status of this herd last summer. 

The Secretary repeats the words of Mr. Sims, and says that the fur-seal herd is 
rapidly disappearing as the result of pelagic sealing; he also adds that in his judgment 
the "destructive effect of this method of taking seals has not been fully realized" — 
i. e., by any one until this season). 

The "Secretary is right in saying that this herd is "rapidly disappearing," but is 
entirely wrong in saying that the destructive effect of i^elagic sealing has not been 
fully realized; he does not seem to know that on the strength of my showing of the 
full" effect of pelagic sealing under existing law and regulations which I gave to the 
Ways and Means Committee of the House, December 21, 1894, that that committee and 
the House took action February 22, 1895, to suppress and put the pelagic hunter out 
of business; but this wise, .sensible, and mei'ciful action of the House was defeated 
in the Senate by sworn agents of the Government, who denied this danger and injury 
incident to pelagic sealing, claiming that the rules of the Bering Sea tribunal were 
suflicient to avert it. 

Again I brought this danger of pelagic sealing forward in 1898, after the Jordan- 
Thompson agreement of November 16, 1897, had utterly denied it. Again my charges 
of this real danger were officially denied by sworn agents of the United States 
Government in the service of the Treasury Department and indorsed by the Secretary 
of that department in a letter dated February 7, 1902, addressed to the chairman of 
the Ways and Means Committee of the House. 

I answered this erroneous official statement of Secretary Shaw by making an exhibit 
for the committee which declared that by the end of the season of 1907 the male 
breeding life on the Pribilof Islands would be extinct. (See Rept. Ways and Means 
Com., 2303; 57th Cong., 1st sess., pp. 4, 5.) 

The committee overruled the Secretary of the Treasury and agreed with me; it 
reported and passed a House bill, February 2, 1903, which would have put an end to 
the inhuman and indecent business of the pelagic hunter had it not been again defeated 
in the Senate by a false statement made to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee 
by Senator Fairbanks, February 17, 1903, who assured his colleagues that an agree- 
ment to a satisfactory settlement had been reached in the Anglo-American Joint High 
Commission, and that that commission would publish it soon after it reconvened; that 
that reconvention would take place soon after the 4th of March, 1903, hence, the 
House bill was not necessary. 

I knev\' that this statement of Senator Fairbanks was without warrant and said so to 
his colleagues in the Senate at the time, but the sine die adjorrnment on March 4 
prevented action, and so this second attempt to suppress the pelagic hunter failed. 
And it failed not from any want of understanding of the destructive effect of pelagic 
sealing, as the Secretary of Commerce and Labor says existed until the Sims report 
of 1906 had been made. Mr. Metcalf was himself a member of the Ways and Means 
Committee in 1902, when I gave that body the full understanding of this work of 
pelagic sealing, and he was also a member when I again reinforced my argument of 
1902 with figures and facts, March 9-10, 1904. 

He also heard my indictment of the excessive land killing by the lessees before this 
■committee in 1904; he heard it denied by the lessees, and only partly agreed to by 
the Department of Commerce and Labor, solely on the strength of my showing March 
9-10, 1904, did the department pledge to the committee the annual reservation of 
2,000 choice young male seals from slaughter by the lessees on the Pribilof Islands. 

On the 2Gth of October, 1905, the agent of the department in charge of the seal islands 
of Alaska, in an official report admits that my charge of injury through excessive 
land killing by the lessees is correct. (See p. 81, S. Doc. No. 98, 59th Cong., let sess.) 

67 



68 ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. 

On page 33 of Secretary Metcalf s report for 1906 he tells us that the lessees during 
the season of 1906 "took 14,643 fur-seal skins, including 281 skins taken during the 
previous season." Then, in this same paragraph, and immediately following, he says 
that only 10,942 seals were killed on St. Paul Island and 1,685 seals were killed on 
St. George Island during the season of 1906. This analysis which he makes of his 
own figures declares the fact that 2,016 skins, and not "281 skins," came over into 
the catch of 1906 from 1905. 

The significance of this you will at once observe when you understand that these 2,016 
skins were the "food seals," which were killed in October and November, 1905, and 
still more, they were the 2,000 choice young male seals ordered spared and sheared 
(not branded) in June and early July, 1905, this sheared mark having entirely dis- 
appeared by the middle or end of September, since every fur seal by the end of Sep- 
tember annually completely renews its own hair — sheds and grows it anew in August 
and September. 

That this is not even faintly understood by the Secretary is plain, for in the next 
paragraph he proceeds to tell us that "in addition to the branded seals reserved for 
breeding purposes, 4,724 small and 1,944 large seals were dismissed from the drives 
as being ineligible for killing under the department's regulations." 

More misinformation with regard to the subject can not be put into fewer words. 
Witness the following: 

I. These seals were not branded; they were sheared instead, in June and early 
July. Then by the end of September they completely lose this mark of reservation, 
and each and every one of them that hauls out on the Pribilof Islands during October- 
November is killed as a "food" seal, and the lessees get the skins, which are carried 
over into the catch for the next season. (See the official proof of this on pp. 8, 64, 65, 
and 86 of S. Doc. No. 98, 59th Cong., 1st sess.) 

II. These "4,774 small" seals do not represent in fact more than 80G or 1,000 
such seals. Most of these seals have been recounted over and over again as they were 
redriven and then dismissed during the season. Some of them have reappeared in 
this fictitious total six or seven times. 

III. These "1,944 large seals" were the sheared and spared seals of 1906 so marked 
in June and early July. Last October and November they were killed as they hauled 
out, as "food " seals, and their skins will appear in the quota or catch of the lessees for 
1907, if these men are permitted to kill next season. 

With regard to the report of Mr. Sims, I shall not dwell upon the many obvious and 
plain errors of statement and conclusion which appear in it. I do not do so because 
he admits that his experience in the premises is limited to a short week on the Seal 
Islands during the summer of 1906. No man, it matters not how great his inherent 
ability, can master this question and intelligently discuss it with so little experience. 

With the single exception of correctly speaking of this immediate danger of com- 
plete extinction of the fur-seal herd of Alaska, under existing conditions, Air. Sims is 
completely at sea and in profound error over everything that he brings into con- 
clusion and recommends in his report of August 31, 1906. 
Very sincerely, your friend and servant, 

Henky W. Elliott. 



Department of Commerce and Labor, 

Office of the Secretary, 
Washington, January 2, 1907. 
Mr. H. W. Elliott, 

No. 17 Grace Avenue, Lahewood, Ohio. 
Sir: I have to acknowledge the receipt of yoirr letter of the 19th ultimo, comment- 
ing upon that portion of the Secretary 's last annual report which refers to the Alaskan 
fur-seal service, and to thank you for the information therein contained. 
Respectfully, 

Lawrence O. Murray, 

Assistant Secretary. 

No. 17 Grace Avenue, Lakewood, Ohio, 

May 18, 1908. 
Hon. Oscar Straus, 

Secretary Commerce and Labor, Washington, D. C. 
Dear Sir: On the 19th of December, 1906, I addressed to you a letter in which I 
pointed out to you certain pronounced errors of statement made in an official report 
to you by one E. W. Sims on the condition of the fur-seal herd of Alaska. That I did 



ALASKAN SEAL FISHEHIES. 69 

so was fairly imperative on my part, since these errors of statement and recommenda- 
tion, which this inexperienced and wholly untrained agent made, were entirely 
subversive of the truth, and most injurious for those public interests at stake, if acted 
favorably upon by you. 

On the 2d of January, 1907, I received an official acknowledgment of the receipt of 
that letter aforesaid, with the simple "thank you for the information contained." 
That acknowledgment was enough; it made no suggestion of an error in any statement 
on my part. There was none, and I knew it when I addressed you. 

My chief protest in that letter was against the grave misstatement by Mr. Sims, who 
said that all of those seals ordered spared by the Hitchcock rules were duly ' ' branded, ' ' 
and so exempted from slaughter ever afterwards by the lessees; that this "branding" 
was faithfully done, and those spared seals thus permitted to live, grow up into breed- 
ing bulls for the rookeries; all this officially and explicitly reported to you, when in 
fact, it was not true. 

Therefore I described to you the manner in which these seals were not branded — not 
one of them — and how they were sheared instead . How this sheared mark was entirely 
lost a few weeks later when this seal went into its natural annual molt and renewed all 
of its body hair. So that those sheared seals thus "branded" in June and July and 
spared then, when they hauled out again in October and November following were 
without any mark of exemption and were killed then by the lessees as "food" seals; 
that in this manner those land butchers were actually nullifying the regulations of 
the department, which Mr. Sims erroneously declared the faithful observance of to 
you. 

What has been the result of this truthful and clear statement on my part to you 
made December 19, 1906? What has been done with regard to the conduct of affairs 
on the islands during the season following? 

I have the official answer of the agents — your agents — now in my hands. It is 
printed as Senate Document No. 376, Sixtieth Congress, first session. Since I have 
myself officially reported to my Government on this life, and as I have so reported 
up to date that no man or official following me or prior to my work has thus far been 
able to successfully impeach the entire truth and sense of my published official rec- 
ords in 1881 and in 1890 (Monograph Seal Islands of Alaska, Government Printing 
Office, 1881), and (House Document No. 175, Fifty-fourth Congress, second session), 
I am constrained to review these reports of your agents for the seasons of 1906-7, 
inclusive. That review is herewith inclosed for your information and use. If I have 
made an error in it and it is publiclv presented to me, I will be most happy to acknowl- 
edge it; but I desire to say that I do not believe it can be questioned seriously by any 
authority. I challenge the correction confidently. 

Your agent, Mr. Lembkey, has no warrant or even the shadow of authority to ignore 
or dispute that table of skin weights which I officially published on page 81, Mono- 
graph Seal Islands of Alaska in 1881. He can not and will not be permitted to set 
aside in this idle manner, as he does on page 84, Senate Document No. 376, that 
long-established and standard agreement of all the United States Treasury agents, 
the agents of the lessees, and myself, upon these skin weights, from 1872 up to 1881; 
and, still more, his attempt to deny that record so officially published is in turn flatly 
denied by the life and growth of the fur seal itself to-day. That life and growth has 
not changed one hair'sbreadth from its order when I, first of all men, accurately 
recorded it in my published work — officially recorded it in 1872-90 inclusive. 

I desire to say that it is with great reluctance that I take up this matter; but I can 
not let anv officialism of to-day reflect ever so little upon my own of yesterdav and 
which I shall defend against all ignorant or venal criticism, now and in the futm-e, 
just as successfully as I have done so in the past. I refer especially to the "scientific " 
vagaries of Merriam and Jordan in 1891 and 1896-7 and the venal and calumnious 
work of John W. Foster before the Bering Sea Tribunal in 1893. 

In the light of this letter, herewith inclosed, and which can not be truthfully 
clouded by any man, it must be clear to you that the lessees can not be permitted by 
you to safely kill a seal next summer on the Pribilof Islands; but your agents can be 
directed to permit the natives to kill some 2,500 or 3,000 small male seals for food 
without any risk to mention of doing injury to the public interests concerned. 
I am, very respectfully, your most obedient servant, 

Henry W. Elliott. 



On page 84, Senate Document No. 376, Sixtieth Congress, first session, Lembkey 
publishes a table of skin weights under date of December 1, 1907. The positive 
errors of this tabulation are as follows: 

Elliott, 1881: 45 to 60 pound green skins are 7-year-old8 and upward. Elliott, 1881: 
25 to 30 pound green skins are 6-year-olds. Elliott, 1881: 16 to 20 pound green skins 



70 ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. 

are 5-year-olds. Elliott, 1881: 11 to 14 pound green skins are 4-year-old8 (are not 
6-year-olds. — Lembkey). Elliott, 1881: 7 to 9 pound green skins are 3-year-olds (are 
not 4 or 5 year olds. — Lembkey). Elliott, 1881: 5^ to 6^ pound green skins are 2-year- 
olds (are not S-year-olds. — Lembkey). Elliott, 1881: 4 to 5 pound green skins are 
i-year-olds (are not 2-year-olds. — Lembkey). Elliott, 1881: 3 to 3^ pound green 
skins are 5 months old (are not 1-year-olds. — Lembkey). 

The Elliott table above cited was prepared in 1872-1876 by United States Treasury 
agents, Bryant, Lessen, Falconer, and Elliott, with the following agreement in it by 
lessee agents, H. W. and H. H. McIntjTe, Daniel Webster, T. F. Morgan, Dr. Kramer, 
Wm. Kapus and Geo. R. Adams, and is officially published on page 81. (Monograph 
Seal Islands of Alaska, 1882. Tenth Census, United States America, Government 
Printing Office.) 

[From the Cleveland Plain Dealer May 17, 1908.] 

DECLARES SEAL REPORTS UNTRUE — PROF. ELLIOTT POINTS OUT INACCURACIES IN 
IN STATEMENTS ON PELAGIC INDUSTRY — SCORES OFFICIALISM WHICH PERMITS CON- 
DITIONS NOW EXISTING. 

Prof. H. W. Elliott, of Lakewood, who is an authority on the pelagic industry, made 
the following statement yesterday in regard to certain phases of recent reports on the 
conditions of the fur seal herd and the sealing industry. Prof. Elliott says: 

"Editor Plain Dealer. 

"Sir: On the 28th of last January you published a letter from me on the 'loot and 
ruin of the fur seal herd of Alaska.' In that letter I called attention to the fact that 
the official report of its custodian (Secretary of Commerce and Labor) did not give a 
hint to the President or to Congress of the total collapse of the legitimate business 
of killing fur seals by the lessees, which took place on the seal islands of Alaska last 
summer. I mentioned the fact that this had taken place, and yet it had been con- 
cealed from the public by its official keepers. 

"I now write to say that the United States Senate on March 2, last, directed that 
the Secretary of Commerce and Labor send to it copies of all reports of the agents 
of the Government who are stationed on the seal islands for the seasons of 1906-7, 
inclusive; that request has been complied with, and I have a printed copy of them 
now in my hands, as Senate Document, No. 376, Sixtieth Congress, first session. 

"I find in this document the full and complete proof of the statements made to 
you in my letter of January last (cited above) ; so complete and so indisputable is 
this proof that I desired to submit a brief resume of it for the readers of the Plain 
Dealer. 

"In the first place, as to the whole number of fur seals surviving when this report 
of the agent in charge was made, at the close of the season, August 1, 1907, the fol- 
lowing remarkable statements are made by him: 

"'On page 9 (S. Doc. No. 376) Chief Special Agent Lembkey says that after a 
careful count and estimate had been made by him and his three official assistants, 
there were not more than 185,000 seals of all classes alive on the Pribilof rookeries, 
August 1, 1906.'" 

After giving us this census he proceeds to describe the destructive work of the 
pelagic sealing fleet, which began its operations immediately after August 1, 1906, 
around the seal islands in Bering Sea. He describes the slaughter of this fleet at length 
on pages 30-31 and sums it up finally under date of 1906 as follows: 

"In view of the facts just mentioned it may fairly^ be believed that the catch of 
27,216 skins by the pelagic fleet in 1906 represents a loss to the herd of upward of 
75,000 animals." 

Here were we officially told that this herd of 185,000 seals has sustained a loss (since 
August 1, 1906, up to December 14, 1906) of upward of 75,000 animals; thus he informs 
us that it can not number more than 110,000 seals at the opening of the season of 1907; 
there is no ambiguity in this statement by him. 

But this same agent, with strange disregard for his own words and figures, as above 
quoted, in his official report for 1907, dated December 1 last, declares on page 87 that 
"172,512" seals of all classes are in existence on the Pribilof rookeries August 1, 1907. 

Does this agent imderstand the meaning of words and the significance of figures? 
If so, how does he subtract 75,000 seals from 185,000 seals in 1906 so as to leave the sum 
total of 172,512 seals alive August 1, 1907? 

The self-evident nonsense of this enumeration — its self-evident untruth — is too 
apparent for further comment. 

In the Ways and Means Committee, House of Representatives, at a hearing held on 
this subject January 14, 1907, I specifically charged these lessees with the violation 



ALASKAN SEAL FISHEKIES. 71 

of their obligation to the Government; I charged them with the nullification of the 
"Hitchcock rules" on the islands; I charged them with killing in October and Novem- 
ber those seals which were spared and ordered exempt from their killing in June and 
July preceding; I gave the committee the complete details of that illegal killing (for 
certain reasons the chairman of that committee lias n(»t made that testimony public 
up to date — why?), and now I find this official admission on page 13 (S. Doc. No. 376), 
by Chief Special Agent Lembkey, that I was right then, but that now (December 14, 
1906) ''measures have been taken by the agents to avoid including in the fall killings 
for food the bachelors reserved in the spring as breeders. * * * 

"Furthermore, the 3-year-old8, having passed the age of puberty, are not found 
on the hauling grounds during the fall, but are hauled among the cows on the rookeries 
when they can not be driven. This is an additional safeguard against their killing, 
and of itself would disprove any allegation that these luarked seals are subsequently 
killed." 

How unfortunate it is for Chief Special Agent Lembkey to have on page 105, follow- 
ing an emphatic and positive denial of the above quoted statement made to him by 
his own official assistant on St. George Island, dated June 3, 1907, to wit: 

Seals. — Four hundred and fifty-eight seals of the quota of 500 allowed the natives 
of this island for food were obtained. The first drive was made on October 19, 
from Staraya Artel, and 220 seals were killed; 209 small, sixty-five 3-year-olds, five 
4-year-olds, six 5-year-olds, two 6-year-old8, and 4 branded were turned away. 
Three other drives were made as follows: October 31, Staraya Artel rookery, 148 seals 
were killed, twelve 3-year-olds released; November 9, Staraya Artel and north, 44 
seals killed; Novem.ber 16, North rookery, 25 seals killed; October 20 to November 10, 
Zapadni Guards, 21 seals killed. 

The last three drives were made up entirely of seals pulled out from among the 
cows by the natives, and as very careful selection had taken place on the rookery very 
few were turned away from the killing field. 

Of the 511 seals which composed the drive of October 19 only 4 bore any signs 
of having been branded, and theee signs were extremely indistinct. No branded seals 
were seen after this date. It is quite evident that in the majority of cases the brands 
put on in June are by a rapid growth of new fur during the interval from August 1 to 
October 19 so entirely obliterated that they can not be depended upon to protect the 
seals during the food killings in the fall. To meet this condition I confined the killing 
as near as possible to those animals having skins weighing from 5 to 65 pounds, but 
despite the most careful and painstaking effort 45 skins weighing over 6^ pounds were 
taken. (For detailed statement of weights of skins see Exhibit B.) 

This St. George official is telling the truth; his superior officer is not telling the 
truth — the whole truth to the Secretary of Commerce and Labor; and this official 
evidence of that fact is now before the Senate and the American people. It bears me 
out to the letter. I know that this Sr. George agent is telling the truth. I myself 
saw this same "pulling out" of young male seals from the protection of the cows on 
St. Paul Island in 1890. It was done then and there, just as it is done now, by order 
of the lessees. I stopped it July 20, 1890, and it would be stopped to-day if the Govern- 
ment's agents did their duty. Will it be, now that this public exposure of their illegal 
killing is made? We shall see. 

The lessees have been killing fur seals on the Pribilof Islands in open violation of 
the law and their lease ever since 1895; they have so prevailed upon the Department' of 
Commerce and Labor as to get that minimum S^-pound skin allowed them by the 
"Hitchcock rules" of 1904 lowered in 1906 to 5 pounds. (See p. 14, S. Doc. 376.) 

^^^^y? 

Because it enables them to "load " every yearling's skin with blubber when skinning 
it off from the carcass, so as to "officially " weigh it in as a "5-pound skin," and have 
an entry (falsely) made against it as a "2-ycar-old skin." 

This evidence of guilt is carried in the catalogues of those London sales ever since 
1894. Their catches of 1896 were the beginning of this improper killing to any extent. 
It became so bad in 1900 that I then protested it to the Treasury Departrnent. It 
was furtively denied. It caused me to bring this abuse to the attention of Congress 
in 1904, and I did so with such abundant proof of my charge that the Secretary of 
Commerce and Labor, on March 9-10, 1904, ordered this check upon the work now 
known as the "Hitchcock rules" of May 1, 1904. That these rules are being violated 
in turn is officially self-confessed, as above cited. (In S. Doc. 376. p. 105.) 

I called attention in my letter to you last January to this fact, that the lessees did 
not dare to expose their catch of 1907 to public sale (as advertised) in London Decem- 
ber 17 last. They did not dare to expose the record of their work last summer to the 
telltale exhibit of a sales catalogue of the skins. Why? Because it was made up of 
such a wholesale killing of small yearling "runt" and "ej'eplaster" skins that even 



72 ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. 

the calluus officialism in Washington could not conceal this fact. Furthermore, that 
1907 catch has not been publicly catalogued yet. (May 8, 1908.) Good reasons, too, 
for that delay. 

There is another feature about this killing of yearlings on the islands; it is due to 
the fact that after the 15th of July annually the female yearlings haul out in even 
greater numbers than do the males, and they all haul together; no man living can 
tell them apart as to sex unless he handles Ihem first. They are never handled first; 
they are always clubbed first. 

The.se small skins (all taken in violation of the "Hitchcock rules") last summer 
(5-pound skins), when exposed last December in London, aroused the buyers to openly 
declare that the very dregs at last had been drawn uj)on and the end was certainly in 
sight; that comment was enough ; this sale was then suddenly postponed of that Pribilof 
catch, because this talk and that catalogue of those skins would embarrass the butchers 
and their friends in Wa.shington; it might ])revent them from getting into the islands 
again in 1908 to skin up what was left, perhaps. 

To shield this illegal killing of yearling seals by the lessees on the islands, the chief 
special agent in charge of that work had been unhappily led into publishing a table 
of skin weights, which is entirely erroneous. 

What warrant has the author for this official blunder, to say the least? He has none 
whatever. Those skin weights which he has attempted to classify improperly have 
all been determined and officially published in 1881. (See p. 81, Monograph Seal 
Islands of Alaska, Government Printing Office, 1881.) 

That official tabulation of 1881 has never been questioned by any authority up to 
date; it can not be; it was the consensus of four white United States Treasury agents, 
six white agents of the lessees, and myself upon this subject during the seasons of 
1872, 1873, 1874, and 1876, upon the killing grounds of St. Paul and St. George Islands; 
we weighed thousands of skins and made no mistake in getting the right weights as 
to ages of those skins. This attempt to shield the real character of the improper kill- 
ing by the lessees since 1895 by officialism of such error will not succeed. 

Henry W. Elliott. 

17 Grace Avenue, Lakewood, Ohio, May 9, 1908. 



1232 Fourteenth Street, NW., Washington, D. C, 

December 7, 1908. 
Hon. Oscar Straus, 

Secretary Commerce and Labor. 

Dear Sir: On the 18th of May last I addressed a letter to you, in which I called 
your attention to the salient errors of statement made to you in the 1906-7 reports 
of your seal island agent, as printed by order of the Secretary. (S. Doc. No. 376, 60th 
Cong., 1st sess.) 

In this letter aforesaid I inclosed a published review of that work of your agent. 
(Plain Dealer, Cleveland, Ohio, May 17, 1908.) I charged the lessees in this article 
(as inclosed) with the violation of their contract, since in taking their catch for 1907 
they had killed yearling seals, and had done so because they were obliged to kill them 
or fail to get the 15,000 skins you allowed them to get under the terms of the Hitchcock 
rules. To get them they have openly violated those regulations of the department, and 
the inclosed evidence of their own sales agent in London con\'icts them of that charge — 
indisputably convicts them. 

Even if we were to admit for sake of argument on this score that Special Agent 
Lembkey's classification of skin weights is correct, as published on page 84, Senate 
Document No. 376, above cited, even then this London classification declares that at 
least 6,000 yearlings were killed in the total catch of last season (1908). They must take 
these yearlings or have nothing — there is nothing left. That is the fact, and these 
men are draining the very dregs of that life up there to get the quota you allow them to 
have. 

Very sincerely, yours, Henry W. Elliott. 



ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. 73 

(From the Evening Star, Washington, Friday, Dec. 4, 1908.] 
[Inclosed in letter to Secretary Straus, Dec. 8, 1908.] 

WHAT DELAYS THE SEAL SETTLEMENT? 

To the Editor of The Star: 

The Secretary of Commerce and Labor in his annual report, just submitted to the 
President, has the following significant reference to the desperate condition of our 
Alaskan fur-seal herd. He says: 

"Thirty-seven Japanese sealing vessels were reported as cruising around in the 
waters adjacent to the Seal Islands during the season. * * * Eight vessels only 
were sent out as the British Columbian fleet. " 

In other words, the Secretary tells us that some 45 hunting schooners, carrying at 
least 1,500 hunters, eager, greedy, hardy seal hunters, have been busy all during the 
season just ended in slaughtering seals at sea around the breeding rookeries on the 
Pribilof Islands. Mr. Straus does not tell us how many seals these sea catchers have 
taken, but he does tell us how few seals there were in existence up there when his 
agents made their reports to him, July 31, 190S. He says: 

"From more than 1,000, ()()() breeding females estimated before pelagic sealing 
became of considerable extent this number has become reduced to fewer than 50,000." 

Naturally Secretary Straus closes his report to the President, above cited, with the 
following self-evident proposition, to wit: 

" It is evident that the time is at hand when the negotiations so long pending for an 
international arrangement for the settlement of the fur-seal question shou.ld be brought 
to a conclusion." 

Certainly they should. But why are they held up? Who is to blame? The 
Canadian secretary of state, Rt. Hon. Mr. Scott, in an open session of the Dominion 
Senate, February 21, 1908, said: 

"Tliese sealers are now acting like a band of pirates. * * * Canada is quite 
ready to enter into negotiations with the United States with a view to the adoption of 
mutually protective regulations. * * * She is ready to take it up whenever there 
is a proposition to do so from the United States. * * * There has been no such 
proposition up to the present. * * * My remarks are inspired by the existing con- 
dition of the sealeries, which does not reflect favorably on the intelligence of the 
nations interested. ' ' 

Few people stop to think of this fact — that in its present condition of complete ruin 
the fm--seal herd of Alaska represents a loss to us of more than $50,000,000 in public 
property since 1890. It is also a loss made still worse since it has been attended 
with the most shameful and cruel license to butcher to that destruction this valuable 
and harmless wild animal life. 

The Secretary says truly that the number of breeding females up to July 31, 1908, 
"has become reduced to less than 50,000." But he does not tell us how much more 
reduced since July 31, 1908, that number is; he does not tell us that this Heet of 45 
British and Japanese sealing schooners has been busy killing these female seals around 
the islands in Bering Sea ever since his report closed, as above cited, up to the end of 
this season in those waters, i. e., October 10-20 last. He does not tell us, because there 
is no authentic record of this pelagic catch extant at this hour; it will not be known 
until the end of this month; but we can safely assume that this fleet will have taken at 
least 15,000 of those breeding females which were alive when this estimate of "fewer 
than 50,000 " was made by the agents of the department July 31 last. It is more likely 
that full 20,000 of that pitiful remnant were taken by those hunters up to November 1 
last. 

Therefore it is an easy matter for one to figure out what a faint margin of fur-seal 
life is left on those islands to withstand the attack again upon it next season vA-hich this 
horde of greedy hunters intend to make, fully realizing as they do that it is their last 
chance to kill, since when they finish nothing will be left to kill. 

What arouses me most in this connection is the fact that unless this fur-seal life now 
at stake is preserved from extermination on those islands of its birth it can not be pre- 
served elsewhere. You can not take fur seals, as you can sea lions and hair seals, into 
captivity of any kind and keep them alive. You can not put them in zoological tanks 
and prevent them from dying of self-imposed starvation. The attempt to do so has 
been made over and over again, only to result in complete failure. 

The fur seal born and bred in Bering Sea is the wildest of all wild animals, and unless 
we prevent its destruction on the Pribilof Islands we can not even preserve the species 
itself elsewhere. That is the reason why it is fairly wicked on our part if we do not 
now step in and stop our own butchers of that life; if we do, then we have the official 



74 



ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. 



assurance of the Canadian ministry that they will submerge their butchers; otherwise, 
they will not. They are right; there is no difference in the rank and smell of those 
human wolves. 

What delays the fur-seal settlement? 

Henry W. Elliott. 



This classification of the lessees' skins is given below in this order by the sales agent 
of the lessees, to wit — 

[From Fur Trade Review.] 



Dec. 1, 1908, New York (p. ' 



Remainder 
of 1907 
catch. 




Probable offerings Bee. 17, 1908 (London sales) 

Middlings and smalls. 4-year-olds 

Smalls (in lots of 70 skins), 3-year-olds 

Large pups (in lots of 80 skins), 2-year-olds 

l-year-olds, long and short: 

Middling pups (in lots of 90 skins) 

Small pups (in lots of 100 skins) 

Extra small pups (in lots of 110 skins), runts, 1 year old 

Extra extra small pups 

Middling and small, low, etc 

Small, low, etc 

Large pups, low, etc 

Middling pups, low, etc 

Small pups, low, etc 

Extra small pups, low, etc 

Middling and small, cut, etc 

Small, cut, etc 

Large pups, cut, etc 

Middling pups, cut, etc 

Small pups, cut, etc 

Extra small pups, cut 

Faulty pups 

Total 



7,444 



Lakewood, Ohio, April 26, 1909. 
Hon. Chas. R. Nagel, 

Secretary Commerce and Labor, Washington, D. C. 

Dear Sir: On the 8th of May, 1908, I addressed a letter to your immediate prede- 
cessor, inclosing a copy of a recent publication of facts over my own signature. In 
this letter I urged him to shut down that work of the lessees on the seal islands of 
Alaska, since it was being done in open and self-confessed violation of the regulations 
of the Government. The published statements, which I took the trouble to arrange 
and present in this responsible manner to him, demanded that action from him. But 
he took none. And still more, he did not even acknowledge the receipt of my letter 
aforesaid, which gave him this information, lacking on his part in the premises. 

However, I know that such silence is the common refuge of that particular official- 
ism which is both unable and unwilling to dispute a statement of fact running 
counter to its order. But I simply did my duty in the premises, as a good citizen 
should do. 

Now, it is both my duty and my pleasure to renew this request and address it to 
you, and to inclose copies of the publications as sent to Mr. Straus last May. Also, 
in this connection, I desire to add that on December 7, 1908, I again submitted addi- 
tional figures and facts to Mr. Straus, in a letter of that date, which declared that the 
lessees had again violated the specific terms of their contract during the season of 
1908 by killing thousands of seals specifically prohibited from such killing by the 
express order of the Hitchrock rules. To this letter and its indisputable serious 
charge no acknowledgment has been made; no attempt to deny its statements has 
been even hinted at. The reason for that silence is good. The truth of my charge 
has been self-confessed by the lessees in London. 

I therefore, on the strength of those figures and facts which I have submitti'd to 
the dejiartment, as above cited (May 18 and December 7, 1908), respectfully renew 
my request that this work of the lessees be wholly suspended, and at once. I do so 
in the clear light of the inclosed statements of fact. I also recommend that the law 
which bonds and binds this corporation leasing the seal islands of Alaska be enforced 



ALASKAN SEAL FISHEEIES. 75 

before it shall be too late to reach the lessees with those fines and penalties ordered 
by it for the public good. 

I am, very respectfully, your friend and servant, 

Henry W. Elliott. 



Department op Commerce and Labor, 

Bureau of Fisheries, 

Washington, April 29, 1909. 
Mr. Henry W. Elliott, 

Lake wood, Ohio. 
Sir: This bureau has received, by reference from the department, your letter of the 
26th instant, in which you invite attention to the condition of the seal herd on the 
Pribilof Islands, and inclosed clippings on the same subject from the Cleveland 
Plain Dealer, together with your comments thereon. Your communication, with 
its inclosures, has been placed on file. 

Very respectfully, Geo. M. Bowers, 

Commissioner. 



Lakewood, Ohio, June 25, 1909. 
Hon. Charles Nagel, 

Secretary Commerce and Labor, Washington, D. C. 

Dear Sir: I want to put on record in the Department of Commerce and Labor this 
letter of respectful but firm protest. I do so because I have learned that in the face 
of the facts and figures which I have given to it in my letter of April 26, 1909, it has 
decided to send one George A. Clark as an expert up to the seal islands to make another 
report upon the condition of the fur-seal herd of Alaska. 

This is the same Clark who united with Dr. D. L Jordan in a letter to Senator 
Dillingham on January 30(?), 1904. In this letter he declared that there was no need 
of any interference with the order and rules established on the islands in so far as the 
killing by the lessees was concerned; that the lessees were doing no harm; that there 
was a great surplus of male seals on the islands, inaccessible places, so hunted that 
the lessees could not reach to kill them even if they tried to. 

This confession of his own unfitness to judge or advise the department in his own 
handwriting is in Senator Dillingham's possession, and appended to it is a review of 
its errors. Undoubtedly the Senator will give you a copy. 

I had to combat this nonsense and injurious influence of Jordan and Clark in the 
department during the winter of 1904. Finally Mr. F. H. Hitchcock sided with me. 
The result was the ordering up of the "Hitchcock rules" May 1, 1904, over the protest 
of the lessees and their "scientific" allies, Jordan and Clark. I therefore protest 
against any more of this "blind leading the blind " in so far as the public business on 
the seal islands of Alaska is concerned. 

Very respectfully, yours, Henry W. Elliott. 



Lakewood, Ohio, May 9, 1910. 
Hon. Chas. Nagel, 

Secretary Commerce and Labor. 
Dear Sir: The reason why a new and competent audit of the seal island books must 
be made in your department, and why it is demanded imperatively for the public good, 
is as follows, briefly stated: 

I. The law has been openly violated on the killing grounds of the islands, and the 
terms of the lease ignored by the lessees thereof at frequent intervals, and repeatedly, 
from July 17, 1890, up to the close of the season of 1909. This vioaltion of the law 
and the contract has been chiefly by the act of killing female and yearling male seals; 
said killings have not been in negligible numbers, but have run up into the tens of 
thousands of female and yearling male seals. 

II. This illegal and improper killing has been ordered by the lessees, and falsely 
certified into your department, as the taking of male seals according to law and the 
rules of your department. 

III. The full and complete proof of this illegal killing as specified above exists on 
the islands and in the records of the sales of those skins. Any competent and honest 
auditor of those records will lay them open and so disclose the truth of those charges 
as made in Items I and II. 

Very truly, yours, 

Heney W. Elliott. 



76 . ALASKAN SEAL FISHEEIES. 

Lakewood, Ohio, May 24, 1910. 
Hon. Chas. Nagel, 

Secretary Commerce and Labor, Washington, D. C. 

Dear Sir: As a good citizen and beino; possessed of abundant knowledge, based 
upon indisputable fact, I addressed a letter dated December 18, 1906, to your imme- 
diate predecessor, lion. Oscar Straus. In this letter to him I specified certain grave 
and inexcusable errors of official reports made to him by his subordinates and cer- 
tain specific acts of official malfeasance by the same, in re conduct of the public 
business on the seal islands of Alaska. 

On the 2d of January, 1907, I received a single acknowledgment of the receipt of 
this letter, above cited, with "thanks for the information contained;" but taking 
notice of the fact that in spite of the indisputable truth of my charges and propriety 
of prompt reform to be made by him in the premises, Mr. Straus had made no move 
to do so, again I addressed a cautious letter May 18, 1907, to him, in which I renewed 
those charges and request for reform. To this letter I have never received even 
that perfunctory acknowledgment which was the entire return for my first one. 

Of course I know why it was not answered — that subordinate officialism was 
guilty as indicted. It pigeonholed my letters; yet I had charity for Mr. Straus. I 
knew how hard it is for one in his position to get at the truth, so I quietly gathered an 
additional statement of fact bearing on this guilty officialism aforesaid, and again on 
December 7, 1908, I addressed a letter, courteously but firmly renewing my charges 
and request that he put an end to this malfeasance specified. 

Did I receive an answer? No. Why? Because that guilty officialism again silently 
pigeonholed my letter, since it convicted and dismissed certain officers if acted upon. 

Mr. Straus went out of office March 4, 1909. You succeeded. Knowing that you 
could not have any definite knowledge of this fur-seal business under your direction, 
except as you gathered it from this same guilty officialism aforesaid, I addressed you 
in turn a letter dated April 26, 1909, exposing that malfeasance under your hand. On 
the 29th following your perfunctory acknowledgment of its receipt came to me. 

But to this day no attempt has been made since by you to answer its grave, explicit, 
and indisputable charges of official malfeasance on the part of your subordinates. Of 
course there is good reason for this silence on the part of that officialism thus indicted. 
It is guilty. But yet what are you sworn to do in the premises? 

On the 9th instant I have addressed to you a final brief of this malfeasance on the 
part of your seal island subordinates. Will continued silence on your part vindicate 
them? 

Very truly, yours, Henry W. Elliott. 



EXHIBIT H. 

President informed December 9, 1906, of fraudulent killing by lessees on seal islands 
of Alaska — Covered in the Sims report — Unmasking the Sims-Bowers deceit of their 
report sent to Congress by him in re condition of the herd — This has been suppressed 
by George M. Bowers and kept from the knowledge of Secretary Nagel — The guilt 
of Bowers; he was on the islands this July of 1906, just seven days, with Sims, 
then these "expert" officials left the islands, having "investigated," and "deter- 
mined the truth" as to this fur-seal question; neither of them had ever been on 
the islands, and neither of them had ever seen a fur seal before, and neither of 
them had any training or knowledge as naturalists. 

Washington, D. C, December 9, 1906. 

Dear Mr. Loeb: I am greatly pleased over the President's message with special 
regard for the preservation and protection of our fur-seal herd. 

I saw the Sims report yesterday for the first time, and 1 desire to quietly, yet pointedly, 
draw the attention of the President to a very remarkable and unwarranted error of 
statement made in it by its author, to wit, on page 28 Mr. Sims says that "2,000 
choice 2 and 3 year old males were selected, branded, and dismissed from the herd 
for breeding purposes," i. e., saved then and thereafter from slaughter by the lessees. 
Again, on page 29, he says: "The experience of recent years in annually branding 
2,000 young male seals," etc. 

This deliberate statement of Mr. Sims is not true; these seals have not been 
"branded " — they have been "sheared "; these "sheared " marks have been put upon 
these seals in June and July, and they haA^e enth'ely disappeared from these seals by 
the middle or end of September following, since all fur/seals completely shed and 
renew their over hair during August and September. 

Please observe the significance of what follows. In October and November every 
one of these spared and sheared seals of June and July that hauls out on St. Paul and 
St. George Islands is killed as a "food skin" seal, and its hide goes into the lessee's 
catch for the ensuing season. 

The official proof of this serious charge you will find unwittingly furnished by the 
seal island agents themselves. On pages 8, 64, and 65 of Senate Document No. 98, 
Fifty-ninth Congress, first session, you will find it officially stated that the use of the 
branding irons was partlj^ discontinued in 1904 and wholly discontinued in 1905. On 
page 86 of this Senate document you will find the official declaration that these seals, 
"sheared" in June and July, are killed as "food seals" in October and November — 
the "sheared" mark being entirely gone then. In this method of procedure, the 
President will observe that the lessees nullify the pledge given by the Department 
of Commerce and Labor to the Ways and Means Committee, the senatorial committee, 
and myself, March 9-10, 1904. 

Mr. Sims has been imposed upon, perhaps; nevertheless, he does not understand 
the real status of this work done on the islands, and hence all of his labored conclusions 
based upon this fictitious reservation of young male life, are utterly idle and 
unfounded . 

WTien we have mercifully, humanely, and sensibly put the land and sea butchers of 
this fur-seal life out of business, by killing it down to the small nucleus sufficient alone 
to preserve the species, then we shall have no difficulty in getting a proper agreement 
with Canada for the full restoration and preservation of this fur-seal herd of Alaska. 
Faithfully, yours, 

Henry W. Elliott. 

Wm. Loeb, Jr., 

Secretary to the President, White House. 

77 



78 ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. 

A Brief Review of the Report of E. \V. Sims on "The Alaskan Fur Seal 
Fisheries," Submitted to the President December 9, 1906. 

This report of E. W. Sims is based upon no personal investigation by him and study 
of this status of the fur-seal herd. The author tells us that he has had but one week's 
experience on the seal islands of Alaska, and that particular time was during July, 
1906. Prior to that time and since then he had never seen a live fur seal, and has not 
seen one; he is not a naturalist and has never given it a serious thought. 

His understanding of this subject is based upon what he has read in official and 
unofficial publications. In so reading he has perused an immense m.ass of misinforma- 
tion, which has naturally influenced his untrained mind to conclusions so unfounded 
as to render all of them, except one, utterly idle and of no value. 

At the outset he declares that the condition of the fur-seal herd was so bad when he 
saw it in July, 1906, that it can be declared to be in immediate danger of complete 
extermination under existing rules and regulations. He is right in making this state- 
ment. (Report on the Alaskan Fiu--Scal Fisheries, by E. AV. Sims, Aug. 31 , 1906, p. 3.) 
He asserts as an official of the Department of Commerce and Labor this danger in 1906, 
when it was officially denied by the department in 1904, in continuation of that denial 
made February 7, 1902, by the Secretary of the Treasury, in reply to my charge of the 
existence of this danger in January, 1902, before the Ways and Means Committee of 
the House. (See hearing on fur seals. Ways and Means Committee, February 18, 
1902, 57th Cong., 1st sess., pp. 7-8.) 

I then furnished this committee with a detailed table of figures and facts which 
declared that unless the rules and regulations which governed the killing of this 
herd on the land and in the sea were amended the male breeding life on the fur-seal 
rookeries of the Pribilof Islands would be extinct by the end of the season of 1907. 
(See Rept. No. 2303, Ways and Means Committee, 57th Cong., 1st sess., June 2, 
1902, pp. 4, 5.) 

Mr. Sims has been able in July, 1906, during his brief visit to the seal islands, to 
correctly grasp the truth of what I predicted in 1902, but this is the only feature of 
his report which ^dll stand analysis and bear the strain successfully. 

After making a brief introduction to the body of this report by a recapitulation 
of the physical features of the seal islands (published in detail by myself, 34 years 
ago, in an official report to the United States Treasury Department), Mr. Sims pro- 
ceeds to give a resume of the business of pelagic sealing and its license under the 
rules and regulations of the Bering Sea Tribunal ordered August 6, 1893 (pp. 4-12). 
He then gives us a detailed account of the operations of the Japanese sealing fleet 
which raided the Pribilof Islands a few days before his arrival, July 20, 1906 (pp. 
12-20). 

He does not know that this raiding by Japanese hunters has been planned and 
directed on these islands by Canadian and American managers ever since 1882-83. 
The significance of the fact that not one of these 30 or 40 Japanese hunters who landed 
on the island of St. Paul July 16 and 17, 1906 — not one of them had a gun with him 
or attempted to return the fire opened on them by the United States Treasury agents, 
which resulted in the death of five of these hunters — the significance of this fact is 
wholly lost upon Mr. Sims. Yet he tells us incidentally that one of the Japanese (?) 
schooners opened a rifle fire upon the Treasury agents to cover the retreat of its hunters 
from the beach. 

He does not know that many of these "Japanese" hunters have been raiding on 
these seal islands of Alaska before, and that they understood the lay of the different 
seal rookeries, and also the methods of the natives of the islands to guard these rook- 
eries; that only on account of being greedy and careless were they detected this last 
time (July 16-^17). Had they "laid off and on," as they have done since 1882-3, 
under the guidance of their Canadian and American masters, and kept under cover 
of the dense fogs so prevalent at this season (July-Sept.), annually, this raid of 1906 
would have passed off as successfully as the long series of such prior raids have done, 
with no special ado on the part of the islanders, beyond a feeble protest at the most. 

He then proceeds to describe the need of revising existing law so as to cover the 
outlying islets of Otter, Walrus, and Sea-lion Rock, which are closely adjacent to 
St. Paul Island. This is, however, covered well enough by the statutes of 1868. 
(Sec. 1956, Rev. Stat.) 

His recommendations as to reorganizing the Revenue-Marine-Cutter Service are 
idle, and of no earthly consequence, until we shall secure an agreement with 
Canada, which checks and prohibits pelagic sealing so as to really result in that 
end. This "Japanese" raid of 1906 was nothing more or less than an Anglo-Ameri- 
can masquerade. If we secure the adhesion of Canada to a proper agreement then 
we will have no difficulty in getting the signatures of Japan and Russia to it; until 
we do get it from Canada we will never get if from Japan and Russia. 



ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. 79 

I do not agree with Mr. Sims as to the need of enlarging the force of Government 
agents on the islands. One or two of the four men now provided for can always be in 
Washington every year from September to the following May. That is everything 
now required of this service. These agents are fully clothed with all the police powers 
necessary, and I do not think it will amount to anything if they are enlarged as recom- 
mended; and, with regard to the work of the Coast Indians, they could get no infor- 
mation beyond the annual published reports of the London sales every December, 
even if they were to set about the task. 

On page 27 Mr. Sims makes the recommendation that the killing of seals by Coast 
Indians of Alaska should be regulated. He does not know that this regulation could 
not be enforced, except by such a police patrol that it would be utterly extravagant 
and unreasonable. — indeed, nothing save the complete })rohibition of pelagic sealing 
by white men, as well as by Indians, would compass such a regulation. 

On page 27 Mr. Sims ignores without warrant the direct testimony of a trusted 
Russian agent of the old Russian company, who passed the entire season of 1819 (not 
one week) on these Pribilof Islands, directly charged with the duty of ascertaining the 
cause of an annually decreased catch on the islands. He reported that this decrease 
was "due to the excessive killing of young male seals" by the company, and that if 
the same was not suspended the complete extermination of the species would follow. 
The company took advice similar to Mr. Sims's view and ignored this intelligent warn- 
ing. In 1834 that "complete extermination," predicted in 1819 by Tanovksy, took 
such hold on the herd that less than 60,000 seals of all classes were left alive, and then 
the company was forced to suspend its work entirely in 1835. There was no pelagic 
sealing industry even dreamed of in those days, and much less practiced; it was not 
a factor until 1886. 

Therefore, when Mr. Sims asserts so positively that "the decrease in seal life on the 
Pribilof Islands is due solely to pelagic sealing" and that this a.ssertion of his "can 
not be seriously questioned," he simply convicts himself of being unable to under- 
stand the sense of official and authentic records of this case in hand, which deny him. 

After making this unwitting confession of ignorance, he proceeds to quote the 
unscientific and erroneous opinion of the Jordan Commission, which declares that 
nature had not wisely created the "greater part of the m.ale life born;" that it "is 
superfluous for breeding purposes." Upon this unscientific and mistaken opinion 
Mr. Sims proceeds to reason to the end that only 1 male seal out of every 30 born, 
"only 1 bull in 30 is absolutely necessary under present conditions." 

That Mr. Sims, whii is without training as a naturalist, and without experience of 
anj^ character in handling and observing this fm"-seal life, should accept this improper 
idea of the Jordan Commission is entirely natiu-al under the circumstances. The blun- 
ders, however, of Dr. Jordan and his associates have been thoroughly exposed and 
published in this connection, and well illustrated by the logic of events since they 
were first published in 1896-1898. Mr. Sims has not, therefore, proven himself a careful 
student of the literature in question. 

The absurd reduction of Dr. Jordan's theory as to the error of natural law in creating 
this particular surplus proportion of male life on the fur-seal rookeries is well exhibited 
by the Stejneger dictum (one of Jordan's assistants), who declares that "a male fur 
seal" can properly serve "200 cows," yet, all unconscious of this nonsense, Mr. Sims 
gravelj^ quotes Dr. Stejneger, on page 28, as one who speaks authoritatively. That 
particular case cited by Stejneger was an example which he observed on Copper 
Island in 1896; but, by 1900, that rookery on that island, where this immense pre- 
ponderance of female life existed, was entirely extinct. Of course it was. There 
are abundant, full and excellent reasons for such an extinction. No real naturalist 
should have made such a blunder as Dr. Stejneger has made in this vain attempt to 
help Dr. Jordan prove himself a law maker superior to natural cause and effect. 

But, when Mr. Sims steps down from the discussion of a biological question which 
seems to be quite beyond his understanding, like this matter of natural selection 
ordered by nature to preserve that life, and proceeds to speak of the business details 
of "branding" and "reserAdng 2,000 male seals annually" from slaughter by the 
lessees, he can not be excused from making a very gross error in statement on that 
point, which is fairly improper for him to make. 

On page 28 he says: "Three years ago, when it became apparent that there was a 
decrease in idle bulls, the department established regulations wherel)y 2,000 choice 
2 and 3 year old males were selected, branded, and dismissed from the herd for breed- 
ing purposes before the company commenced taking its quota for commercial pur- 
poses." 

Mr. Sims knows very well from the records, which he himself quotes, that the 
department did not recognize any need of saving these young male seals "three years 
ago;" he knows that this action by the department was forced on it by my showing 
of its necessity to the Ways and Means Committee of the House, March 9-10, 1904. 



80 ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. 

It was denied by the assents of the department, but Mr. F. H. Hitchcock, then chief 
clerk of the department, agreed with me, and then appeared before this committee 
aforesaid and fully explained why he did so, in spite of the "scientific" evidence of 
Dr. Jordan and his as.-^ociates, who opposed it. (See p. 5.3, Hearins? on Fur Seals, Ways 
and Means Committee, 5Sth ("oug:., 2d sess., Mar. 9-10, 1904.) 

Mr. Sims says that 2,000 young male seals have been annually "branded " in, since 
the season of 1904 and saved from slaughter by the lessees, in compliance with this 
pledge given to the Ways and Means Committee March 9-10, 1904. 

This deliberate statement of Mr. Sims is not true. These seals have not been 
"branded;" instead, they have been "sheared." The sheared marks have been put 
upon those seals in June and early July; they have entirely disappeared from the 
bodies of those seals by the middle or end of September follo^ving, since all fur 
seals completely shed and renew their overhair during August and September annually. 

Then the significance of what follows appears to have entirely escaped Mr. Sims. 
It destroys completely the sense of his conclusion. These sheared seals of June and 
July haul out continually thereafter upon the islands during October and November. 
Each and every one of them that so appears has no longer the sheared mark upon its 
body. It is killed then as a "food seal," and its hide goes into the lessees catch for 
the ensuing season. 

Mr. Sims will find the official proof of this serious charge of inexcusable ignorance 
on his part, unwittingly furnished, by the very men with whom he associated officially 
on these islands in 1906. On pages 8, 64, and 65, Senate Document No. 98, Fifty- 
ninth Congress, first session, it is officially stated that the use of branding irons was 
partly discontinued in 1904, and wholly discontinued on the seal islands during 1905. 
Still more: On page 86 of this Senate Document No. 98 is the official declaration that 
these "spared" and sheared seals of June and July are killed on the islands as "food 
seals" during October and November, and so done because the sheared mark has 
entirely disappeared. 

By this method of procedure (Mr. Sims being all unconscious of it (?)) the lessees 
completely nullify the pledge given by the Department of Commerce and Labor to 
the Ways and Means Committee, March 9-10, 1904. 

Mr. Sims has either been imposed upon by the selfish and greedy interests concerned, 
or else he is sadly deficient in those qualities which a competent investigator should 
possess. 

With this evidence of Mr. Sims's inability to see and luiderstand these details of the 
routine business as it is conducted on the seal islands, it is idle to proceed further in an 
extended analysis of his complete misunderstanding of it, as he progresses with this 
report of his. 

Following this erroneous statement, as above cited, made on page 28, by Mr. Sims, 
he proceeds to advance an irrational argument in favor of no further interference with 
the work of the land butchers. This improper plea for those factors of destruction is 
not to be seriously considered, since it is based upon the improper argument of Dr. D. S. 
Jordan, who exploited the untruth during 1896-97, that "no land killing ever injured 
the herd." 

The only "rational basis" upon which to kill fur seals hereafter upon the Pribilof 
Islands is to have it done without serving any private interest. Mr. Sims does not 
see anything ahead but the interests of private gain, and he therefore supposes that 
these interests are to continue into the future as they have endured in the past. 

On page 29, Mr. Sims says that it is not sensible or human to put the land and sea 
butchersout of business by killing off the surplus female and male life to a nucleus just 
sufficient to preserve the species. He makes the pronounced blunder of assertion that 
the pelagic hunters will soon kill off this surplus female life themselves, and it is better 
that we continue to breed those mother senls for these butchers to kill indecently, than 
to decently kill them ourselves, and so mercifully end this cruel business at once. 

Mr. Sims does not seem to know that when this business of the pelagic hunter is 
rendered impracticable by the act of killing off this surplus life at once, on the islands, 
at least ten years must elapse before that business can be profitably resumed. During 
that interval and while the pressure of these greedy private interests of land and sea 
butchery is thus wholly removed from the question, "it will be both easy and practicable 
to have an agreement made with Great Britain, Japan, and Russia which will forever 
shut these butchers out and so protect, preserve, and fully restore the fur-seal herd of 
Alaska. 

The advice given by Mr. Sims, on page 29, that the Government "brand or tag all 
of the seals born on the islands in the same way that the great herds of cattle which 
roam the western prairies are branded," and that action of this kind would reduce 
these fur seals to its possession and justify it in protecting them on the high seas, is 
utterly impracticable and unfounded for the following good reasons, to wit [and this, 
too, coming from one who claims legal training]: 



ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. 81 

First. The brand mark which might l)e put upon the nape, back, or side of a fur 
seal would l)e instantly removed from that animal's skin 1:^^ the pelagic hunter in the 
process of skinning^ the body, if its presence (m that skin was conclusive evidence 
that it was illegally' taken. In no way could such a mark l)e placed upon a fur seal's 
skin so as to prevent its perfect removal by its captor as a "spear" or gunshot mark 
during the process of skinning. 

Second. The idea of attaching "metal tags" to the "young seals before they leave 
the islands," on which might be stamped the words, ''Property of the United 
States" — this idea is entirely idle. The tags can not be permanently attached to 
the bodies of the seals, and even if they could be so attached then this property-right 
claim, which Mr. Sims seems to think can be made, has been and is rendered null 
and void by that decision of the Bering Sea triljunal, which on August 16, 1893, de- 
clared that no such property right could be vested in the bodies of these seals. There 
is no appeal from that decision, and that ends it. Yet Sims, the lawyer, does not even 
know it. 

With this puerile recommendation that the Government proceed to brand and 
tag the remnant of that fur seal herd now in existence as a means of conserving it, 
and making no other suggestion, Mr. Sims closes this report by reference to a series 
of statistical tables which he has compiled. There are five of these tables, duly 
itemized, to wit: 

Table 1 is substantially correct (pp. 33-34). 

Table 2 is also substantially accurate (p. 35). 

Table 3, with the discussion that precedes it on pages 36-37 and following it on 
pages 38-41, is- both erroneous and misleading as to figures, facts, and deductions. 
It is wholly erroneous for the following reasons: 

In attempting to get at a fair idea of the real size of the fur-seal herd in early days, 
and down to date, the author has assumed an arbitrary ratio of calculation based upon 
the annual records of seals killed. This is a ratio of ' '1 to 15," and then he gravely 
and laboriously carries it through his entire discussion as a sound and proper working 
hypothesis; in no sense whatever do the facts justify this ratio of "1 to 15," it is 
utterly misleading and self-contradicting, and it is strange that its author should 
soberly reduce its vagaries to cold type. Yet he has done so, in spite of the fact that 
at frequent intervals during his discussion he admits that the ' '1 to 15' ' ratio will not 
satisfy the case and is misleading. Therefore, the appearance on page 38 of an 
elaborate "Table 3. — Take of skins and approximate size of seal herds, 1786-1906," 
wholly based on this ratio of "1 to 15," is, to my mind, an idle and worthless com- 
pilation with a baseless summary; indeed, it is self-confessed as such by its author. 

Mr. Sims, in this table above cited, puts the entire number of seals on the Pribilof 
breeding and hauling grounds in 1868 at "2,000,000," on this arbitrary basis of a 
ratio of "1 to 15, " which governs his entire tabulation from 1786 to 1906. The catch 
of fur seals made on these' islands in 1868 was 340,000 (280,000 on St. Paul and 60,000 
on St. George). The Sims ratio of "1 to 15" applied to this catch (precisely as he 
applies it to the catch of 12,886 made on both islands in 1906) would give 5,100,000 
seals instead of the ' ' 2,000,000" which he credits the ' 'average' ' of 1868 with. 

I early saw through the utter futility of making estimates and "rough approxima- 
tions" like this attempt of Mr. Sims. I saw the folly of it after a few weeks' study 
of that life in these islands, in 1872; and, in lieu of it, I made a survey of the herd 
then, which has passed into history as entirely accurate and well founded on fact. 
These original charts of the precise area and location of the breeding fur-seal herd on 
the Pribilof Islands, as it existed there, during the seasons of 1872-1874, are now in the 
possession of the State Department, ha-v'ing been acquired by John Hay, April 18, 
1904. They declare the pre.-'ence of over 3,000,000 of breeding seals and young, and 
some 1,500,000 nonbreeding seals, on the Pribilof Islands, July 25, 1872, with no 
increase or diminution in 1873, and a very slight increase in 1874. 

Every detail of this elaborate and careful survey of the fur-seal herd has been re- 
duced to wTiting from my original field notes and was placed in the hands of Secretary 
Hay, January 26, 1905.' There is no "acreage estimates" in that work as Mr. Sims 
has erroneously asserted [p. 36], and there is no step taken in my method of computa- 
tion which has been, or can be criticised properly or .sensibly, as "guesswork," 
even if the imaginative mind of Dr. Jiirdan has so suggested it, and so made it "un- 
reliable" to Mr" Sims and kindred lightheads. He says that Jordan has "proven" 
it to be unreliable. (See pp. 36, 37.) "Dr. Jordan has done nothing of the kind. Di- 
rectly to the contrary. I have made a full and complete answer to Jordan's criticisms, 
and that "authority" has never been able to reply. (See pp. 1658, 1679, of Congres- 
sional Record, February 2, 1903; debate over fur-seal bill, and passage of the same, 
57th Cong., 2d se.:5s.) 

95100— No. 1—11 6 



82 ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. 

The utter and self-confessed error of the "complete censuses" of the fur-seal herd 
made by Dr. Jordan in 1897 and by Agent Leml)key in 1904 and 1905, and to which 
Mr. Sims refers (p. 3(5), is plainly exhibited, as follows: But in justice to Mr. Lemb- 
key I want to specify this fact, that he does not claim an "accurate count" for his 
figures. He admits that he is only "making an estimate," and that admission at 
once removes any good ground of complaint from those who hold opposite views. 

The steady diminution of the herd since 1890, when my census of that season 
showed 950,000 breeding seals and young, and not to exceed 80,000 nonbreeding 
seals above 1 year old was such that by 1896, when Dr. Jordan made his first appear- 
ance on the islands, it was then not a very difficult task to count nearly all of the 
breeding bulls as they planted themselves on their stations. Then, Jordan struck 
an average of 30 cows for each bull, and in this method of calculation he satisfied 
himself that some 450,000 to 480,000 breeding seals and young, exclusive of the non- 
breeding seals, were then in existence. But to cover the nonbreeding seals it became 
necessary to fix upon some other ratio, and so the Jordan people assumed a ratio of 
"1 to 20, " or that for every seal taken during the season there were 20 seals (old and 
young) not taken. Thus, in 1896, the lessees by severe driving got 30,000 skins. 
This Jordan ratio of "1 to 20" would make some 600,000 seals in the herd during the 
season of 1896. But in 1897 the lessees took but 117,000 without exertion, and so 
this ratio of Jordan's assumption declared that the herd had shrivelled to 340,000. 
He was suddenly aware of the gross absurdity of this great reduction, as he proceeded 
to average anew that catch for 1896-97 and apply this average to the multiple of his 
ratio. In this "scientific" manner did Jordan finish that portion of his "investi- 
gation," and his bad example of 1897 has set the pace for Mr. Sims in 1906, who 
acknowledges his indebtedness for the ill-fitting pattern of the Jordan census, and 
who, in turn, carries it soberly out to its idle reduction all through the long list of kill- 
ings on these Pribilof Islands since 1786 down to date. Just nonsense. 

The failiu-e of our case before the Paris tribunal was due wholly to the ignorance and the 
inexperience of the agents of our Government who made it up and managed it. Again, 
when it was reopened, in 1896-97, the ignorance and inexperience of Dr. Jordan and his 
associates who had charge of our case — again this deficiency on the part of our agents, 
resulted in making this bad matter worse, when the Jordan-Thompson "joint agree- 
ment as to matters of fact," was signed up in the Department of State, November 16, 
1897. 

Mr. Sims has followed this erroneous pattern of Dr. Jordan, to its absurd reduction in 
1906 — "branding irons and metal tags!" 

There never has been an hour since 1890, when we first opened this question seriously 
with the Government of Great Britain, when we could not have settled that fur-seal 
question properly, had our own agents been qualified by education and experience to 
deal truthfully with the salient points in dispute, and honest enough to put the greedy 
demands of the land and sea butchers of this life down and out forever. 

Henry W. Elliott. 

Lakewood, Ohio, December 9, 1906. 

"The President wants nothing but the facts — he will attend to nothing else, 
coming from anyone, no matter how close that person may be to him personally." 
(News item.) 

BRIEF. 

Analysis of the sworn official evidence which John Hay transmitted to Congress 
in 1902, which convicts the lessees of the Seal Islands of Alaska of gaining their lease 
from the Government, on March 12, 1890, by fraud and perjury, and which is self- 
confessed in this publication by those lessees aforesaid. 

This proof is detailed in the testimony given to the Ways and Means Committee 
of the House of Representatives, by Henry W. Elliott, on January 14, 26, and 28, 
1907. (Said testimony is found in the record of that fur-seal hearing given to Mr. Elliott 
by that committee on those dates, and duty preserved on the files.) 

Respectfully submitted for the information and the use of the President by 
Henry W. Elliott, July 12, 1909. 



EXHIBIT I. 

MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT IN RE FUR-SEAL FRAUDS. 

The evidence which has been sent in to Congress by John Hay that convicts the 
lessees of the seal islands of Alaska of fraud and perjury March 12, 1890, in securing 
their lease from the Government, is found as follows: 

In February, 1890, Secretary Windom invited bids for the renewal of the lease of 
the seal islands of Alaska, said lease to run from May 1, 1890, 20 years. 

On February 20, in the presence of the agents and representatives of the bidders 
for this lease, he opened nine proposals. These bids were all carefully scheduled 
and referred by the Secretary to a board of survey composed of three chiefs of divisions 
in the Treasury Department. This board was directed to report to the Secretary 
the best bid offered as above stated for the Government to accept. 

This board of survey found that the bid of the North American Commercial Co., 
of San Francisco, Cal., was the best for the public, and so reported to Mr. Windom. 
This finding was unofficially made known to the bidders, and the Secretary informed 
the president of the North American Commercial Co., Isaac Liebes, that on the 12th 
of March this lease aforesaid would be awarded to him then if he appeared at the Treas- 
ury Department at that time and complied with the stipulations and regulations de- 
manded by law and the department. 

Mr. Liebes appeared as desired and above cited. Mr. Windom then said to him 
that he had been credibly informed by good authority that Mr. Liebes and his asso- 
ciate bidders, in the name of the North American Commercial Co., were owners of 
pelagic hunting schooners and interested in the buying and selling of fiir-seal skins 
taken at sea. If that were true, then Mr. Windom said that he had a plain duty to 
perform, and would throw out the bid of the North American Commercial Co. 

President Liebes replied that this charge that he and his associates then o^\'ned a 
pelagic hunting schooner or schooners or were then interested in the buying and 
selling of pelagic skins was not true. He said that he and his associates had disposed 
of all their interests in pelagic sealing vessels and skins and came into this bidding 
entirely clean and free of any association with or interest in that business of pelagic 
pealing as charged. 

Secretary Windom then told him that he (Liebes) must make oath to that declara- 
tion; that if he did so then this lease aforesaid would be duly awarded to the North 
American Commercial Co. 

Mr. Liebes replied and said that he was then ready to do so; and he did so in the 
presence of the Secretary and the several chiefs of division, who formed the Board of 
Survey, as above stated. This oath having been duly made and recorded, Mr. Windom 
then, on March 12, 1890, formally executed the lease and awarded it to the North 
American Commercial Co. aforesaid. (See pp. 142-143, H. Doc. No. 175, 54th Cong., 2d 
sess^ 

Wnen Mr. Isaac Liebes swore on the 12th day of March, 1890, that neither he nor 
any of his associates in the North American Commercial Co. owned pelagic hunting 
vessels or were interested in the business of pelagic sealing, on that day and date 
afore,-?aid he committed deliberate perjury, and by so doing he secured that lease from 
the Government, as above described, in a fraudulent manner. 

The ofRc-ial sworn proof of this perjury aforesaid is found in the following: Report 
on the foreign relations of the United States, 1902, Appendix I, etc., sent into Con- 
gress by John Hay. This Appendix I is also published as House Document No. 1, 
Fifty-seventh Congress, second session. 

On page 203 of this House Document No. 1 aforesaid is the sworn official oath of sole 
ownership of the pelagic hunting schooner James Hamilton Li'wis, executed January 10, 
1890, by Herman Liebes, the partner of Isaac Liebes and associate member and director 
of the North American Commercial Co. aforesaid. 

This record of the ownership of the James Hamilton Lewis as above cited, in the 
name of Herman Liebes, associate incorporator, and director, of the said North Amer- 
ican Commercial Co. (with Isaac Liebes, D. O. Mills, and Lloyd Tevis), stands with- 
out change on the books of the United States customhouse, office of the collector of 
the port,'San Francisco, Cal., as quoted above, up to September 17, 1890. Then this 

83 



84 ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. 

sealing schoouer, the James [Tamilton Lewis, is isold by H. Liebes to H. Liebe.-i & 
Co. (Inc.). So that, then, this said vessel stands on the collector's books as the prop- 
erty of Herman and Isaac Liebes. (See p. 120, "Exhibit A," H. Doc. No. 1, 
aforesaid . ) 

Then and thereafter, up to July 29, 1891, thi,s sworn proof of the ownership of that 
vessel, as above cited, stands without change; but on this date a bill of sale is made 
of that vessel by 11. Liebes & Co. (Inc.) to Max Waizman, etc. (See p. 120, Exhibit A, 
H. Doc. No. 1, 57th Cong., 2d sess.) 

Thus the State Department, in this form and time, sends the proof clear and undis- 
putable to Congress that Isaac Liebes, president of the North American Commer- 
cial Co., of San Franci.sco, Cal., did, on the 12th day of March, 1890, utter fraud and 
perjury in the presence of the Secretary of the Treasury, Wm. Windom; that by 
said utterance he fraudulently secured the lease of the seal islands of Alaska, as above 
stated, from the Government. 

Henry W. Elliott. 

July 12, 1909. 

All of which is respectfully submitted on this 12th day of July, 1909, for the informa- 
tion and the use of the President of the United States. 

Henry W. Elliott. 

Note. — On July 29, 1909, the President ordered this brief referred to the Depart- 
ment of Commerce and Labor for its information. On the 6th of August the Secre- 
tary of the Department of Commerce and Labor notifies me that he has received the 
above and will give it consideration. 

H. W. E. 

August 15, 1909. 

[Mailed to him, same day, 9 a. m.] 

Lakewood, Ohio, June 18, 1909. 
To the President; 

The appended press dispatch from the Plain Dealer' this morning prompts me to 
ask that you call upon the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee of the House 
of Representatives for a complete copy of that testimony which I gave to his com- 
mittee on January 14, 26, and 28, 1907, in re fur-seal frauds and the conduct of the 
lessees of the seal islands of Alaska. It has been jjrinted, for I read all of my testi- 
mony in page revise. It has been withheld from publication — why? 

This testimony aforesaid calls for the Attorney General to perform a plain duty 
which he is sworn to execute in the premises. 
With great respect, 

Henry W. Elliott. 



Washington, D. C, February 14, 1907. 
Hon. J. A. Tawney, 

House of Representatives. 

On January 14 last, before the Committee on Ways and Means, I made the distinct 
and specific charge of perjury and fraud against the president of the North American 
Commercial Co., of San Francisco, and lessee of the seal islands of Alaska; said per- 
jury and fraud being uttered on the 12th day of Tilarch, 1890, by said president of 
the North American Commercial Co., and on the 28th day of January last I submitted 
the sworn and official evidence which proved my charge aforesaid. 

Also, on the 14th of January last, before that committee above cited, I made the 
distinct and specific charge of malfeasance in office against H. H. D. Peirce, Third 
Assistant Secretary of State, and on the 28th day of January last I subinitted the sworn 
and official evidence which proved my charge against Peirce. It is in that record of 
my hearing before that committee aforesaid. 

If the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee does not make this testimony 
of mine above mentioned public, then he is vainly trying to shield those men above 
named, and merely deferring the date of their punishment. 

Henry W. Elliott. 



1 Copy not furnished. 



ALASKAN SEAL, FISHERIES. 85 

Washington, D. C, February 14, 1907. 

Dear Mr. Loeb: I have just been credibly informed that the chairman of the 
Ways and Means 'Committee is not going to make public that testimony which I 
have placed upon the record of that fur-seal hearing, held in the aforesaid committee 
over the pending House Joint Resolution 205. The only reason which he can assign 
for this unusual secrecy over such a matter which I will entertain for a moment as 
valid is that I have proven certain serious charges of fraud and perjury which I have 
made against the lessees of the seal islands of Alaska, in re securing their lease from 
the Government and of certain malfeasance in office against H. H. D. Peirce, Third 
Assistant Secretary of State, duly suborned by those agents of those lessees above cited. 

While it may be best for the public interests concerned to withhold my testimony 
from publication at the present hour and immediate future, yet I am positive in my 
belief that a copy of the record of this hearing above mentioned should be in the 
hands of the President. This fur-seal question can not be settled right without all 
of these facts which have been developed in committee during the progress of that 
hearing being known to the President. 

Very sincerely, yours, Henry W. Elliott. 

Wm. Loeb, Jr., 

Secretary to the President, 

White House. 



Department of Commerce and Labor, 

Office of the Secretary, 

Washington, August 6, 1909. 
Sir: The receipt is acknowledged, by reference from the President, of your commu- 
nication of 9th ultimo, in which you make certain charges against the North American 
Commercial Co. in connection with its lease of the seal islands. 

In reply you are advised that your letter and the statements contained therein will 
receive proper consideration. 

Respectfully, Ormsby McHarg, 

Assistant Secretary. 
Mr. Henry W. Elliott, 

17 Grace Avenue, Lakewood, Ohio. 

who are these "officials"? — KARGER MUST TELL US. 

Office of Editor Cleveland News, 

August 30, 1909 — Monday, 9 a. m. 

George M. Bowers shows me letter from Gus Karger to Bowers and typewritten article 
on yellow paper for publication, entitled "Elliottiana." In this article appeared the 
following * * * : 

"I. Secretary Nagel has instructed them (the officials of the LTnited States Fish 
Commission) to pay no attention to his (Elliott's) charges. * * * 

"II. Elliott has made charges against James G. Blaine, John Hay, and Charles 
Foster. * * * He has also made charges against Hon. John W. Foster. * * * 

" III. He (Elliott) was thrown almost bodily out of the Ways and Means Committee 
on account of getting into a controversy there with the Hon. Sereno Payne, the chair- 
man. * * * 

"IV. He used to be an authority 20 years ago, * * * but he is now getting 
somewhat confused. * * * 

"The officials of the Bureau of Fisheries have a most intense dislike for this 
man * * *." 

This letter from Karger written in obedience to request from Bowers that Karger 
call on the department for some advice as to what the department was going to do in 
the matter of taking action on the proof of the guilt of the lessees submitted to it by 
the President on July 29, 1909; said proof given to the President on July 12, 1909, by 
H. W. Elliott. 

Henry W. Elliott. 



86 ALASKAN SEAL FISHERIES. 

August 12, 1909. 
Hon. Ormsby McHarg, 

Assistant Seeretan/ Commerce and Labor, 

Washington, D. C. 
Dear Sir: Your advice of the 6th instant that my brief of that proof which con- 
victs the lessees of the Seal Islands of Alaska of securing their lease by fraud and 
perjiiry, March 12, 1890, from the Government, has been referred to you by the Presi- 
dent, has been duly received. 

The best lawyers here, to whom I have submitted that proof aforesaid, all unite in 
sayino; that they fail to understand how the department can do otherA\4se than promptly 
cancel that lease thus procured by fraud and perjury, since the evidence which 
orders that cancellation is so indisputably published by the United States Depart- 
ment of State. 

Very truly, yours, Henry W. Elliott. 

o 



LB Mr '12 




